Like It Was Yesterday
by LosingInTranslation
Summary: The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. including a photo album scrapbook GSR Yo!Bling Etc. Discovery Series No. 6
1. Part 1: He knew his place

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:**_ T - For Teen (for mild language)

_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/YoBling/Etc.

_**SPOILERS:**_ None... 6th Installment of _**The Discovery Series**_

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc. 

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this _final_ installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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Strewn across the entire expanse of the oversized table in the kitchen were stacks of photographs, a large variety of cardstock paper, little packages of letters, and a whole host of the supplies commonly found in the scrapbooking section of any craft store. Someone was either very behind in their scrapbooking duties, or she was working on one heck of a project.

The kitchen was quiet for the first time in days, and the woman seated at the table was determined to get as much done as possible. Her hands moved deftly through the photos, selecting the ones she needed for the sand colored cardstock taking the spotlight in front of her at the moment. She carefully arranged the pictures on the paper, making sure they all fit exactly the way she wanted them. Brushing a stray lock of auburn hair from her eyes, a glint of silver caught the light, making visible the march of time through her tresses.

As he stood in the doorway watching the woman hard at work, a smirk played over his face. He marveled at the fact that even when she was on vacation, there was work to be done.

"Ya know, we had the only Mom that could ADD better than any kid in the neighborhood, don't you?"

She turned to find a tall, strikingly handsome young man leaning against the doorjamb with a towel hanging from around his neck as he chuckled at her current state. "Yeah, well, with kids like you…what choice did I have?"

He kicked off his sandals onto the deck and came through the door. "I guess that whole two at once thing didn't help either, huh?"

"Followed immediately by three more… No, not hardly." She watched him walk to the fridge and reach in for a bottle of juice. "Remember to leave the apple juice."

He turned to her with a question on his face, and then it dawned on him. "Right! For the midgets." He dug a little deeper into the refrigerator. "How about the cranberry juice?"

"As long as there's enough for Pop's tequila sunrises tonight, you're good." She went back to her task as he sought out an unreserved drink. One of the best parts about being a grownup was the fact that he got to have a drink with his father, and his father made the best Tequila Sunrises. That cranberry juice had a higher purpose.

"Well, it's obvious the years haven't hit the inside of your head yet." He enjoyed the huff he got from his mother and the grin on his face showed it when he turned back around to see her glare. He casually took a drink from the bottle of Gatorade he had retrieved and then pointed to that same wayward strand of hair which bore the evidence of her years.

She looked up to see what he was referring to, and then blushed slightly upon seeing the glaring example of her advancing age. "Yeah, well… None of those red dyes really match my hair color, and your father threatened to have me committed if I started being high maintenance this late in life."

He scanned the main area of the house and then asked, "Speaking of…where's the old man hiding? And the rest of the crew too?"

"He & Patrick took the little ones down to the lake for some fishing. The girls went into town to restock the ice cream supplies, and the rest of them went out on the ATV's." She shrugged off his question with her answer, all the while affixing the photos to the page.

Taking a seat opposite his mother on the bench seat, he peeked over the table to see exactly what she was doing. He found several pictures of two little toe-headed boys that he instantly recognized. "Whoa! Some of those are from the dark ages, Momma. What's that for?"

"Trying to get this thing done before the big party." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration and disturbed one of the piles of photos, which she then had to straighten out. "But with David on leave with the girls this summer, and the new coroner in Henderson knocked up, I'm short on bodies and having to take up the slack myself. Thankfully I haven't had to pull a graveyard yet." She re-stacked the photos and worked to set up the adhesive for the lettering. "I haven't worked a grave since you're brother was born."

"Which one?" He took great delight in interrupting one of his mother's little rants. Mostly, because it only served to make them just a little more involved. Throughout his life, he was well aware of his place in their family; he was the instigator.

"Ha, ha. You know full well that I moved to days when I went back to work after Daniel was born." She shook her head and set about pressing the letters into place as she continued to talk at a breakneck speed. "That's when Al decided it was time to retire. Though I'm not entirely sure why, since all he did was run for county coroner the very next day, but that was his headache. When I finally retire, it's not going to be to run for an office. Pop always said the only good elected official was the one leaving office."

"Was that my Pop, or yours?" He picked up one of the stacks of photos and started flipping through it as he waited for her answer.

"Mine… You won't recognize any of those." She went back to her page and set about to finish it as he worked to figure out who was in those photographs.

"Holy crap! Are these really Uncle Gil?" He had trouble imagining that the young man in those pictures was the same gray haired man he had grown up with. "I mean, I never saw him like this…this…"

"Young?" She laughed at her son's reaction to seeing the old pictures. "Ya know…we all were once."

"Well, I've seen the pictures of you. Grammy used to show them to us all the time. But I don't think I've ever seen these. How come?" He handed the stack to his mother so that she could make sure they were in the right order.

"A few of these came from your grandmother, but most of them were from Grandma Mary. I found an envelope full of them when your Pop and I were cleaning out the gallery after it was finally closed down." She stopped on one and chuckled. "He really was a handsome devil, huh?"

"Totally!" He instantly recognized his mistake and tried to correct it. "Not that he isn't anymore, but…" He blushed when he realized his mother had totally played him. "How do you always do that?"

"Years of practice…" She winked at him and added, "And I gave you half of your DNA, Mikey."

"Right… So, why the page with all the pictures of me and Patrick if it's for Uncle Gil's party?"

"Well, I'm trying to make a book with all of the important things in his life, and seeing as he was there when you were born, and one of you has his name, I think that qualifies… Don't you?" She put the finishing touch on the page, and then handed it to her son.

"Yeah, I guess so… He's always been there for us, too. After all, Uncle Gil is the reason I got into entomology." Michael traced the edge of a picture of two blonde haired boys and a woman with flowing white hair as they read from a children's book. "Well, him and Grammy."

"Yeah, but I still blame Sara and R.J. for your crazy environmentalist streak." She looked over the table to see which image had captured her son's attention. "That's always been one of my favorites. And Momma kept a copy of that one with her at all times."

Michael looked up from the page and smiled when his mother continued to explain. "When she passed away, your father and I found one in the frame beside her bed, one in her purse, one in the little album she took everywhere, and another in the big scrapbook we started for her when you monkeys were born."

The smile on his face was filled with pride as he looked over the page that bore his double image in several stages of his life. "When did you take this one?"

He turned the page around and pointed to a picture containing a pair of identical, fair-haired boys, sleeping soundly beside each other. There was a delighted smile on his mother's face as she recognized the photo in question. "Well, it should look pretty familiar right now… You're Aunt Sara took that one when you boys wouldn't get up one morning here at the cabin."

"Oh wow! That's one of those fold up thingies, huh?" He shook his head as he tried to remember when the picture was taken. "Well, that had to be when we were like seven or eight… Since I think that was the only time we had that much hair once we started school."

"And it was so light, too… You got so embarrassed when Greg saw you both and called you the Toe-Head Twins that you begged your father to buzz your hair right then and there." She practically giggled with the memory, and it reminded him of how she looked when he was still a boy. "And when he wouldn't do it, little con artists that you were, you managed to convince poor Nick that your Pop didn't have his cutters with him and got him to buzz your heads."

Laughing outright with the reminder of that episode in his life, Michael admitted, "Uncle Stephan was convinced we were gonna grow up to either be felons or lawyers."

"Thankfully, he was wrong on both accounts." They both enjoyed a round of laughter with her joke.

His attention finally made its way to the picture in the center of the page; two boys with light hair, walking hand in hand with a petite little girl sporting a healthy head of brown hair. They were walking away from the camera, off on some adventure and not caring a bit that they were without a single grown up. From their statures, he decided the trio was probably in the neighborhood of four to five years old.

"That's one of my favorite pictures. The three musketeers, off to save the world, or find some mischief to get into." He reveled in the knowing smile that played over his mother's features. "You guys were four that summer, so Lilli was just a few months shy of four."

"So, we were always at least a head taller than her, huh?"

"Only until high school… Then you were even taller." The reality of that statement had them both rolling with laughter.

When things had finally calmed down, Michael looked around the table and asked, "Should we start getting this stuff cleaned up before the troops make their way home?"

She looked around the table and sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Heaving a deep breath, she resigned herself to being done for the time being. "At least I got one page done."

Michael walked around the table and came to stand behind his mother. He reached down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he leaned his head into hers. "Tell ya what… If you tell me what the heck me and Pat are doing in this picture…" He pointed to the photo showing the two boys in shorts, on the deck of the cabin, obviously playing with something very small. "Then I will stick around another week and help you with the scrapbook."

Stephanie squeezed the powerful arms of her son, and beamed with intense joy and unending pride. "You've got a deal!" He sat down in the chair beside her and waited for her to begin. While he knew his place in the family was as the instigator, his mother was most certainly the storyteller. And just like everything else she did, she was very good at it.

_We were taking our annual vacation together at the cabin, and I woke up a little late that morning, because Jimmy had been fussy all night from an ear infection. Your Pop and Uncle Gil were doing their best to keep the troops happy and quiet so that Sara and I could get some sleep. That was the summer she was pregnant with Max, and she was having a rough time of it. So, it was just the Dad's with three very rambunctious and inquisitive toddlers. _

_Lilli was easy, as usual. She took her morning nap in your Pop's arms, but you two monkeys were ready and raring to go. According to your uncle, that's something else you got from me. I think Uncle Gil was looking for a morning nap by the time Paddie screeched. _

_That's what woke me up. You boys had the most piercing voices when you were scared or excited. _

_Anyway, it would appear that Paddie spotted a Daddy Long-Legs on the deck and nearly lost it; ran straight for your Pop and managed to wake sleeping beauty up in the process. By the time he got both of them quieted down, Uncle Gil had the Daddy Long-Legs in his palm telling you all about the thing, and when he picked it up to place it in your hand you giggled so brightly that Sara and I met in the hallway to see what was going on. _

_We peeked through the kitchen windows to keep from interfering, but what we found had us both scrambling for a camera. Your Uncle Gil was holding a seminar on the wonders of Daddy Long-Legs with a seriously under graduate class of toddlers that was totally rapt with attention. _

_Unfortunately, by the time we got out there with a camera, Gil was trying to calm Lilli down because the bug touched her, and you and Paddie were desperately trying to catch the little bugger again after Lilli threw it. Paddie only wanted to see the bug, but you wanted to capture and study it. _

_That picture came after you discovered there were a bunch of rollie poly bugs between the boards of the deck. Paddie kept watch, but you got right down in there and pried one loose with your grubby little fingers. Just so you could play with it. _

_A lot of rollie poly bugs lost their lives that week, and the Daddy Long-Legs stayed away for many years to come. But whenever we went on vacation up here at the cabin, there was always the first day bug hunt in the nursery. Lilli wanted nothing to do with them, and it was your job to make sure she never saw one in the nursery. Paddie always took her and eventually the rest of the kids for a walk to the swing while you cleared out the loft. _

He loved his mother's stories, and this one was no exception. He kissed her cheek and rose from the table when he asked, "So, Pat was always the psychiatrist in the family?"

"And Lilli has always been the boss." Her other son came in behind her and kissed the other cheek. "That's how we always managed to stay out of trouble, Mikey. The woman was a born mastermind."

"Thankfully she uses her talents for good…now." She looked back to find her grandchildren, but instead there was an empty deck. "Please tell me you didn't leave your father down there alone with the midgets?" she asked as he moved toward the sink to clean up.

"Nah… Bethie's with him. I was instructed to bring the fish up here for cleaning, so as not to freak out the munchkin patrol." He pointed to the paltry stringer of fish hanging from the hook outside.

Stephanie got up from the table and walked to the little freezer in the back of the room. "How many?"

"My three, and Jimmy's three. Plus one for Pop, because Christian and Carri thought that Poppop needed a fish, too." Michael and Patrick laughed at the notion as their mother began to dig into the freezer.

"Seven fillets comin' up."

"Ya know, when I first found out you guys swapped out our fish, I thought for sure the world was ending. But when I got older and me & Mikey went to scout camp, I was eternally grateful. Gutting fish is just plain disgusting." Patrick went back out onto the deck and grabbed the fish to toss into the compost bin behind the shed.

Michael watched his mother shrug and take the fish to the sink to thaw out. "I never had to wonder why Paddie didn't go into medicine… Weakest stomach in the world."

"So, why did you guys start packing the freezer with fillets anyway?" He had long been curious about the odd practice, but never got the nerve to ask before then.

"We work with corpses for a living, Mikey… The last thing I wanted was a row of autopsies every day on vacation, too." With the water running over the frozen bits of fish she added, "Besides, you kids were horrible fishermen, and this was the only way to keep you fed without fixing two dinners."


	2. Part 2: And the Geek shall inherit

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:**_ T - For Teen (for mild language)

_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/YoBling/Etc.

_**SPOILERS:**_ None... 6th Installment of _**The Discovery Series**_

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this _final_ installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

**_A/N3:_** There was a little confusion as to who was who in the last one... That was kind of done on purpose. I wanted to throw it into the deep end and see if the story could swim on its own. So far so good. Also, you will not see this installment updated nearly as often as the rest of the series. I'll be happy to get one of these done every month. But the first two were screaming to get finished. :D

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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_**Part 2 – And the Geek shall inherit the earth… **_

It was a long drive back from Elko, but he couldn't remember when he'd had a better time in the car. Being the only one who had flown in to Reno to meet up with the family for their annual trip to Uncle's Gil's cabin, it was left to him to drive back to Las Vegas with his parents. They had dropped Beth off at the airport in Reno so that she could fly back to L.A. for school and then started off on the seemingly endless drive to Las Vegas; the city of his birth.

Whenever someone found out where he was from he would get the same three questions; how can you grow up in Sin City and be so normal, isn't the heat just totally unbearable, and how many mob guys did you know? The heat question always cracked him up, because he was usually being asked that as he stood in the middle of a tropical forest, and his answer was always the same; "It prepared me for my work, since it's much easier to go from the fire into the frying pan, than the other way around." Afterwards, he would go on to explain about the astounding device known as the air conditioner, and he was always careful to inflect heaping amounts of the sarcastic wit he'd inherited from his mother.

The mob question was another great avenue with which he could exercise his humor muscles, but the first question was definitely the easiest. He would look them right in the eye, and testify with complete sincerity, "My parents."

When the other kids were pushing the boundaries of safety and sanity in regards to their relationships with their parents, Michael had always known, without a doubt, that if his parents wanted him to do something a certain way, than that's what he was going to do. He and his siblings had an unshakeable faith in their parents' judgment, and no amount of peer pressure was ever going to persuade them otherwise.

Now, that's not to say that they didn't get into their fair share of trouble, because after all, they did enjoy a little mischief. By and large, they were all good kids, and they knew the source of that goodness came from their parents. On the drive back to Vegas, Michael was reminded of that in full clarity.

As soon as Beth was safely seen into the airport, with the appropriate amount of concern from her parents (as well as a little money slipped into a pocket), they began to talk about their own days back in Los Angeles as soon as they got back into the car. He once again heard the story of how they met, and how their mutual friends did everything but lock them in a room to get them together. He was doing the driving that day, but his father still leaned forward and laid a hand over his mother's shoulder as she told the story about when they first knew that it was the real thing. Even after more than thirty years together, and twenty-nine years of marriage, his parents still felt a desire and a need to demonstrate their affections in those little gestures.

"I swear to you, it took three guys to hold your Uncle Robert back when he found out your father and I were dating. He was convinced that something sinister was going on if your Pop was keeping it from him, but the truth was, we were all afraid he was going to come uncorked no matter who I was dating."

His father felt a need to elaborate and so he cut into her story, "He was exceptionally protective of your mother back then."

"If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn he was under direct orders from my father or something." His mother's amused laughter filled the interior of the Tahoe, and soothed his soul. "But once I got him calmed down and told him what was really happening, the big monster got all weepy and hugged everybody. And I've only ever seen him like that five times in my life."

It seemed like such a strange number to spout off, so Michael felt compelled to ask, "What happened the other times?"

His mother looked back over her shoulder at his father and he smiled when the man answered for her. "The first time he held you kids after you were born. Turned into a big girl every time he got a little bundle into those meat hooks he calls hands."

Hearing his parents explain that quirk about his Uncle Robert did wonders to warm his heart. The big burly man with the deep booming voice had always been a constant fixture in their lives, but he never really understood how the man fit into their strange little family dynamic. The most he had ever put together was that he was there because he was Uncle Carter's partner, so he never imagined that Uncle Robert was really the reason they had all gotten together in the first place.

After he asked his parents about the relationship, he was surprised to learn that Robert was introduced to Carter by his father, and that he was the one who introduced his mother to Carter. He always knew that Carter was his father's best friend, but to find out that Robert had acted as big brother to both of his parents, independently from one another, explained why they were two of his godparents in perfect clarity.

Michael knew exactly why Uncle Gil and Aunt Sara were their godparents, and it was pretty obvious why Aunt Cath and Uncle 'Rick also acted that capacity, but it was always a mystery to him about his other two Uncles. Uncle Gil was a real connection to his grandfather, while Aunt Sara and his mother were as close as any two sisters could be. When it came to Uncle 'Rick, Michael was almost embarrassed to admit that he was nearly twelve years old before he realized that the man wasn't really his father's brother. Not to mention that, until he was fourteen and doing a genetics project for school, he honestly believed that Aunt Cath was his grandmother's little sister.

After they stopped for fuel at the halfway mark, the conversation naturally drifted into the story of his birth. He once again heard about how miserable his mother got while being pregnant with monster twins in the middle of a Nevada summer. He listened as they retold the moment of his birth, quickly followed by his brother Patrick, and he loved being able to hold that little fact over his brother's head. But what he hadn't ever heard before was the fact that his mother had actually been in the hospital for the last two weeks before they were born because of complications.

Of all the things she could have left out of the story, knowing that his mother risked her own life to give him and his brother more time, and a better chance at leading healthy lives made him treasure the woman beside him even more than he ever had before.

He had to work to coax the rest of the story out of his parents, but eventually they told him that she began to have difficulty breathing because of the strain of his and Patrick's combined weight on her system. That was also when he learned that his mother had almost died less than a year before they were born.

There had always been little mentions about some kind of problem at the morgue and his mother having to go to the hospital a few times because of work, but neither he, nor his siblings were ever told the whole story. His father went on to explain that the last thing they ever wanted their children to inherit was a sense of guilt over something they had no control over, or a feeling of indebtedness over the perceived sacrifices they made in the name of parenthood. Hearing their explanation gave Michael yet another reason to keep his family up on that pedestal.

When they finally reached the family home in Summerlin, Michael was beat. He had driven the whole way, and been shocked to the core from his conversations with his parents. He helped to unpack the car, but when he tried to help his mother put some of the things away in the kitchen, she immediately handed him a bottle of apple juice and sent him to his room to rest. He made sure to crack a little joke about how long it had been since he was sent to his room for anything, but she came right back at him with, "Keep it up and I'll ground you, too."

It might not have been his idea to lie down, but apparently his mother knew him better than he thought, because the moment his head hit the pillow he was out like a light. And when he didn't wake again until three in the morning, he was reminded why he had not really missed the cabin trip the year before; that fold out couch in the great room was murder. Instead of getting up, he simply shucked his clothes and crawled under the sheets to finish out the night in perfect slumber.

The trill sounds of a cicada filled his senses the next day, and he had to think twice about where he really was until he realized it was actually his cell phone going off. He grabbed for the phone and brought it to his ear, even though he kept his face partially buried in the pillow. "Yeah," was the only answer he was able to muster.

As he listened to the recorded message asking him to hold the line for the party placing the ship to shore call, he struggled to roll over in the bed. "Hey! I thought you weren't going to be…No kidding?!... No, that's awesome…End of the week…Um, hold on, I need to find…" He slapped at the nightstand in the hopes that his trusty pad of paper was still there. True to form, his mother left his room in pristine condition, which included a pad and pencil lying on the bedside table. "Yeah, Flight 4520 out of San Diego, got it…Friday at four-fifteen…No, that's not a problem at all…Do you want me to get us a room or…Really?...Well, Jimmy's in town and I'm pretty sure Momma's got plans for the weeken…Okay, okay, I got it…If you're ready, than so am I." His face showed the evidence of his pleasure with the answers he received. "Right, so I'll pick you up and we'll have dinner with Momma and Poppa Friday night?... No, it's probably better one on one first…Well, you have to remember, not only are there two of me, but I have younger, much worse siblings." He laughed at the response and unconsciously nodded his head in agreement. "Right then…Friday night…See you then, babe."

As he finished writing down all of the details, Michael glanced at his watch and almost passed out. It was nearly noon. He decided that the jet lag must have finally caught up with him. He drank the last little bit of juice from the bottle his mother handed him the night before and leapt up from the bed. With some fresh clothes from his duffle bag and the towel he grabbed from the closet, Michael headed for the shower. He had a lot of work to do in the next few days if he was going to help his mother before the real fun began, and it wasn't going to happen if he continued to sleep the day away.

Freshly showered and rubbing the last of the water out of his slightly shaggy hair, Michael walked out into the living room. Before he could take one more step into the room, his mother called out from the kitchen, "Put that towel in the hamper _before_ you walk through the house." He looked at the towel in his hands and then around the room. He guessed that the whole "Mom's got eyes in the back of her head" thing never went away.

After putting the wet towel in the hamper he made his way into the kitchen; first because that was where his mother was hiding, and second because his stomach was busy reminding him just how long it had been since he last ate. When he turned the corner, he found his mother in a familiar scene. Once again the table was covered in photographs and scrapbooking supplies.

Before he got any closer, his mother pointed at a plate on the end of the island, and said, "I fixed it when I heard you get in the shower." On the plate was one of his mother's famous deli sandwiches, complete with a Kosher Dill Pickle. He grabbed the plate and was about to move toward a chair when she added, "There's some of that Tommyknocker's Root Beer you like, and I think your father restocked his Fat Tires, as well."

Michael could only shake his head at his mother's ability to predict his needs, just as she always had when he was growing up. He reached into the fridge and selected a root beer. "Since I'm barely awake, I think a beer for breakfast might be pushing it, Momma."

"Sorry, I'm used to Danny's night schedule, I guess." She chuckled as she continued to work on the pastel colored page in front of her.

He walked over to her and looked over his mother's shoulder to see what it was she doing, and that was when he saw a page filled to capacity with baby photos. "Damn! Do we really have that many midgets floating around?"

She laughed at his exclamation, "Some of these midgets have midgets of their own now." Her head shook with her answer, but with it came the recognition of his own baby picture.

"Oh wow… Are those everyone's?" He grabbed for the chair behind her and scooted it up so that he could be close without disturbing her work.

His mother pointed to the writing by every picture and asked, "What do you think?"

As he scanned the page, he found his full name and his birthdate, with the same scenario repeated alongside nearly every photo. He looked over the whole thing and found his and Patrick's, along with the rest of his siblings. There were also photos of his cousins Lilli and Max, and all of Greg's kids, but down in the bottom right corner were just a series of photos and first names. When he inspected them a little closer he recognized all of his nieces and nephews, Max's two kids, Lindsey's two and Niko's baby girl. He quickly realized that his mother was making a page with all of the baby pictures of the family's offspring.

"Hey, Mom… You missed one."

"No I didn't… I even found that picture Jimmy took of Devon and Micah when he first met Emily." She went back over the page to make sure she wasn't mistaken, but Michael only laughed.

"You got Lindsey's kids, but not Lindsey." His mother gave him a disapproving glare and he asked, "What, doesn't she count?"

"Well, of course she counts, but I don't have any pictures of Lindsey when she was a baby. Besides, having her little ones should count for more." His mother blushed slightly at being called out for her omission. "Honestly, the girl was a teenager when I met her, so I really don't ever think of her in the same breath as you kids. I mean, she did babysit for you little monsters at some point."

"Sounds good to me… But that's still a lot of midgets." He sat back in his chair and took a bite out of his sandwich.

His mother shrugged off his comment and shot back with, "Just doing our part to increase the geek population."

Michael nearly choked with laughter. His mother had a real talent for one liners, and he loved every moment of it.

"Yeah, well, I really like the layout. Especially with Lilli and Max in prime focus. Aunt Sara is really gonna like that you included all of Greg's midgets, too." His mother nodded at his analysis of her work.

"In a lot of ways, Greg means a lot to the both of them. And he has always looked to your Uncle Gil as his mentor, even now." She looked back to smile at her son and added, "We may not have the most traditional family dynamic, Mikey, but we're nothing if not devoted and loyal."

"Don't I know it… Doesn't matter where we are either." The thought sparked a memory which he shared, "From the moment they found out I was moving to D.C., Nick and R.J. were right there helping me find an apartment, having me over to dinner when I was in town, inviting me to parties to show me around. R.J. even got her friend Jack to help me write my grant proposal for the Cantilever Group endowment. And Bethie is over at Greg and Kirsten's every Sunday for dinner since she started at UCLA."

"We've got a good bunch, don't we?" The pride in his mother's smile warmed his heart. She was right, they were definitely not conventional, but they had to be the most functional family he had ever known. They pulled together in times of need, they supported each other in every trial, and in the good times the celebrations were the stuff of legends.

"Sure do…" His mind was sent back to the time when his baby sister was born. "I remember when Bethie was born, and everyone made it to town within ten hours of Pop putting out the call. I've never seen anything like that in my life. It was like the whole world stopped until he came out of that delivery room to tell everyone it was a girl."

His mother turned in her chair and put her hand on his arm. "Yeah, it was a pretty remarkable thing, huh?" Michael watched as his mother's eyes became glassy with unshed tears. "It still amazes me… She'll always be my little miracle child."

Regret began to fill his heart when he realized why his mother had gotten so choked up. A few years after his brother Daniel was born his mother endured a series of miscarriages which caused his parents to abandon their dreams for a houseful of kids.

His parents had always planned on having at least six, with dreams of kids in the double digits. They both grew up feeling very alone, his mother an only child (outside of the short time with the brother he was named for) and his father spent the majority of his life in the care of the monks. Neither really had any aunts and uncles, but made do with the acquired family they were blessed to find. His parents wanted more for their own children, they wanted to give them a true family, with all of the benefits and liabilities that came with it. And while they had succeeded in this goal, it still fell short of their dreams. They never spoke of the miscarriages, but Michael knew that it affected them both deeply. He saw it anytime someone brought out the baby pictures.

"Hey, Momma…" Michael decided to deflect his mother's memories to something else related to the pictures. "You mentioned something back at the cabin about Aunt Sara having some trouble when she was pregnant with Max. What did you mean?"

"I did?" She seemed surprised that she had let that slip, but quickly recovered and began to explain, "Well, she had a lot of trouble with nausea in the beginning. And it wasn't just in the morning. You know how little she is anyway, well she lost like fifteen pounds, and had us all more than a little worried."

"Aunt Sara doesn't have fifteen pounds to lose… Not without chopping off a limb or something."

His mother laughed at his exclamation and answered, "Right, which is why we were all on guard with her. Drove her completely crazy for the whole pregnancy. Then, once she started putting on weight again, she started putting on a lot of weight. She got downright huge at the end. The doctor eventually had to put her on bedrest. When she went into labor a month early, I thought your Uncle Gil was going to come unglued. As it turned out, little Max was fine. He just wasn't exactly what they were planning on."

That last statement had him confused and so he asked, "Did they think they were having a girl, or what?"

"Oh no… They knew it was going to be a boy. Fought for eight straight months on what his name was going to be. No, your Aunt Sara gave birth to a nine pound baby, four weeks early."

"DAMN! And he was early?!" Michael tried to process just how big his aunt must have been by the end of the pregnancy. "Are there any pictures of that?"

"Of Max, yeah… But no one wanted to face the firing squad by even thinking of pointing a camera in your Aunt Sara's direction. But you remember how big Tammy got when she was pregnant with the twins?" He nodded at the comparison and she continued, "Well, add about ten-fifteen inches to that waistline and you're probably close to how big around she got."

"Wow… That was huge!"

Before his mother could respond, a woman with perfectly cut, short white hair came in through the back door to ask. "What was huge?" She didn't wait for an answer once she found the face that went with the voice. "Mikey! Your mother didn't tell me you came back with her!"

She instantly rushed over to wrap him up in a big hug the moment he took to his feet. "Sorry, Aunt Cath… It was a last minute decision."

"Well, then I'm glad things changed… I haven't seen you in so long!" She leaned back to get a good look at him and immediately noticed the face full of scruff. She reached up to tug on the facial hair. "And what's all this about?"

"Keeps the biters away when I'm crawling around in the muck." She gave him one of her trademark smirks and shook her head.

"Just so long as this isn't some bizarre attempt to live life like your crazy uncle." He laughed. His Aunt Cath had spent an entire lifetime giving his Uncle Gil grief about something, but they all knew it was meant with love. He just thought that Uncle Gil might have been happier if she didn't care quite so much.

"No worries there… Though I have found myself quoting obscure classical literature a lot more lately." She swatted him playfully and shook her head again.

"Defintely gets his sense of humor from you." Aunt Cath patted his mother on the shoulder as she looked down to see the page she just finished. "Oh wow! That turned out great, Steph." She slipped on her glasses and looked a little more closely at the photos. "Oh… I love that picture of Lily. She just looks so precious there. Not the little stinker she is now."

His mother shot him a quick wink over her shoulder and then said, "Must be taking after those broads she's named after."

"Don't say things like that!" She swatted his mother and grabbed the chair beside her to get a closer look at what was going on. "I don't even want to think about that one."

"I don't know… You turned out pretty good, Aunt Cath." He got up and took his plate to the kitchen sink.

"And I want to make damn sure nobody else goes through that again." The stern look on her gracefully aging face told him volumes about the sacrifices she made to insure that fact. When he was growing up, he possessed an unbending faith in the fact that he would be safe, if his Aunt Cath had anything to say about it. Nobody got through her.

He watched on for a while as his mother and Catherine poured over each of the baby pictures, and shared their pregnancy horror stories. Michael knew he had no business speaking up during their little estrogen explosion.

They talked about swollen ankles, raging hormones, mood swings, who got the biggest, who had the biggest baby, and what they did to bounce back after the baby was born. He listened to them for a long time, marveling at how it seemed as though the years were melting away from their faces, and delighted at the sparkle that filled their eyes. But as they continued talking, something struck him for the first time.

"Hey, how come Nick and R.J. never had any kids?" Their stunned looks almost made him wish he'd kept his mouth shut, so he tried to make up for it. "I mean, I know that R.J. traveled a lot, and they were kind of older when they got together, but it's not like they were old, or anything. 'Cause isn't she the same age as Aunt Sara?" Their continued silence made him increasingly nervous. "Don't look at me like that."

His mother got up from her seat and leaned over his back to wrap her arms around his shoulders. "It's not that, Michael. It's just that it's not something we really talk about."

He shook his head with his confusion and asked, "But why?"

Aunt Cath took the lead from there on out. "Well, because things got a little crazy over that one. Hell, they almost cancelled the wedding and everything." He watched as she folded her arms over her chest and shook her head in disgust. "Neeley said it got really ugly when Nick took her down to Texas to meet the sisters. I guess they were convinced Nick was throwing his life away by getting involved with somebody who couldn't have kids."

"Wait… What do you mean, 'couldn't have kids?'" This was the first Michael had ever heard about that and he wanted some clarification.

"Honey, the woman was bounced off of an eighteen wheeler." She saw the confusion he was experiencing and asked, "What did you think the scooter and braces were all about?"

"I don't know, I guess I just never really thought about it."

His mother shook her head and patted his shoulder. "Guess that means I did a little too a good a job with you kids, huh?"

"I guess so… I mean, I missed that stuff with R.J., thought that Uncle 'Rick was really Pop's brother, and it never even occurred to me that there was anything different about Carter and Robert, or Neeley and Lanie from any of the other couples in our family." His mother and aunt chuckled at his analysis. "However, it did provide for an endless source of amusement for my friends in college."

Leaning over to kiss the top of his head, his mother mused, "It's doing a pretty good job for us, too."

Aunt Cath looked on for a moment and then asked, "You really thought Warrick was Thomas' brother?" When he blushed, she just laughed a little more. "He would've liked to hear that."

At her words, Michael regretted having mentioned his Uncle 'Rick with her there. It had been just over two years since the man who had been such a big part of their lives passed away quietly in his sleep, just the way he always wanted. His Aunt Cath took the whole thing really hard, quit working, and for a little while his mother worried over her well being. But when Lindsey and her daughter were involved in a car accident, it seemed to snap Catherine right out her depression.

In no time flat she was calling all the shots, making sure that everyone was taken care of, and directing the course of treatment for both of them during their recovery. His mother told him that it was when the chips were down that Catherine really shined. And once everyone was fine and healthy again, she went back to work, but instead of working in the lab, she decided to head into what he had often referred to as _the family business_; academia. His Aunt Cath starting writing a textbook for the graduate program that Uncle Gil was still monitoring, and began giving lectures all over the country to encourage and support other women to enter into the world of forensics.

He watched when a new expression fell over her face as she changed gears. "As for Nick and R.J…. I'm pretty sure they got their fill of kids helping her friend Jack with his brood. Not to mention all of those college kids out at the research site before that."

"I can believe that… Jack's youngest is quite the piece of work." He grinned at the memory of his conversation with R.J. about the unconventional teenager. "R.J. says that Andy is payback for all the hell that both of his parents raised."

"From what Sara has told me about Angela, I can definitely believe that one." His mother handed the completed page to Catherine and they all waited for the verdict.

"Did I miss something?"

It was obvious that her question had confused both of them, but his mother was the one to ask, "What are you talking about?"

"This one, down at the bottom…" She pointed to the picture of the tiny little girl completely swaddled in pink with the name "Lisabet" written beside it. "Who the hell is that one?"

Laughing at the expression on the older woman's face, his mother tried to explain. "That's Niko's little girl… Born about two months ago… Greg sent pictures to _everyone_."

"Oh good lord! The world really is coming to an end." Normally, her exclamation would have been comical, but it was an odd reaction to his mother's description of the baby's identity.

"What makes you say that?"

"Are you kidding?" Catherine rolled her eyes and then removed her glasses when she answered herself. "Greg Sanders is somebody's _grand_father!"

The howls of laughter that followed were enough to bring to the two women to tears. As Michael watched them pouring over the other pictures, he was grateful that his mother and father were able to create a family around them, in the absence of the ones they were denied by the accident of birth. He was even more grateful for his own accident of birth, for being blessed with so many people to share the milestones of his life.

He must have had a strange look on his face, because his Aunt Cath reached out and squeezed his knee to get his attention. "Mikey… Did you notice how Paddie's twins did the same thing you two used to do when you slept?"

He looked at the page and saw that Christian and Carri were huddled together in the picture, much the way he and his brother appeared in their photo. "I think it had more to do with how our parents laid us down, Aunt Cath." Once he was back in the present, he finished his remark with a wink.

"Don't look at me… I put you guys down at opposite ends of the bassinet, but you always ended up snuggling together." His mother got up from the table and went to the refrigerator. "Of course, when you were a little older, I think it had more to do with being able to plot better in closer proximity."

Catherine gave him that raised eyebrow and he held up his hands in defeat as he exclaimed, "I plead the fifth on that one."

"I object… Wait, what are we talking about first?" A blonde whirlwind came in through the backdoor, but Michael instantly recognized the voice.

"They were trying to get me to give up twin secrets, Linds." He got up and wrapped the woman in a hug before she could get any closer to the table. "You gotta help me out. They're trying to gang up on me."

"Don't ask her for help… She'll just make you her slave for the whole freakin' summer for not doing anything." Immediately following after Lindsey, with a sullen scowl firmly entrenched on her normally cherubic face, was the voice of teenage discontent.

"Well, hello to you, too, Sunshine." Lindsey stepped back from Michael's embrace, but he kept an arm over her shoulders. "Is that any way to greet the guy who brings you back presents from the Yucatán?"

The girl's face instantly morphed from the angry beast to an excited sprite without missing a beat. She dropped the box onto the chair at the end of the table and dove into Michael with her arms wrapped around his midsection. "Mikey!!! Nobody told me you were back!"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if they told you, silly girl." He pulled playfully on her ponytail and brought her face up so that he could stick his tongue out at her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… Where're my presents?"

"Lily Catherine Campbell… Where are your manners?" Lindsey struck a pose with her hands firmly planted on her hips and Michael watched as his mother elbowed Catherine with her amusement.

"Same place my positive attitude is being kept, Mo-ther." The roll of the girl's eyes, along with the deliberate shake of her head also reminded them of another woman in the room.

"Keep it up, and you'll spend your senior year under house arrest."

"Before the eyes start rolling out of your heads… How about you go get that package sitting the library, Lily?" Michael stepped in to mediate between the two very strong women.

With Lily conspicuously out of earshot, he leaned in to Lindsey and whispered, "They make 'em like that so that you _want_ to send them away to college, ya know?"

"You have no idea, Mike." Lindsey melted into his embrace again as he chuckled at her response.

As Lily made her way back into the room, carrying the brown paper wrapped box, she asked, "So, which was it this time, Mikey; spiders or roaches?"

"It's the Yucatan, Squirt… So, there's a little of both. However, the project I was working on was for researching the population structure, seasonality, and habitat use of the green lynx spider, otherwise known as Peucetia Viridans Oxyopidae. But I was able to catalogue a couple of new mantids for my collection, and I came back with a great butterfly specimen for Uncle Gil." He wrung his hands together as he grew more excited with the description of the insect in question. "I found the most perfect specimen of Heliconius chartonius that I've ever seen. The stripes are so vivid and the wingspan is one of the most symmetrical I've ever even heard about. I've got it packed in a special box until I can get it properly mounted in a really nice case for the big party."

Lindsey turned to his mother and asked, "Is it just me, or does he turn into a nine year old right before your eyes when he starts talking bugs?"

Without missing a beat, she came back with yet another dose of wit. "You give him way more credit than I do, Linds. I was thinking more like two years old."

Catherine wasn't one to be left out of the fun, so she added her own commentary. "Just further proof that he's becoming his Uncle."


	3. Part 3: Surf, Sand and Surprise Vistors

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Had a little trouble getting this one in last week, because I just spent an incredible weekend with some great friends. The reason for the trouble was that I was the one planning that whole weekend. LOL Oh well, it's done and loaded, with the full graphics loaded onto the website listed in my profile for your complete reading enjoyment. Thanks for all of the support you have all provided through the reading of this series. It has become a labor of love to complete this little journey.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

"Thanks for the lunch, Mom!" A flash of red hair and a trailing lab coat were all she saw when Stephanie lifted her gaze toward the sound as it disappeared through the garage door.

She was still chuckling when her husband came ambling out of the library. "Am I to take it that the tornado that just whipped through here was our youngest son?"

"That would be a yes… He got paged to cover another ER shift tonight." She continued chopping the vegetables for a salad as she answered his light-hearted query.

Thomas shook his head as he took a seat at the breakfast bar opposite her. "That kid has way too much energy." He quirked his eyebrow and added, "Reminds me of another red-headed wonder."

"Nah… Bethie's much worse than that." She slyly tried to subvert his reference to her, but the sideways grin on her face gave her away. When she looked up at him, she knew it had not worked at all. His stubbly face was screwed up into a delighted grin, which only accentuated the smattering of silvery whiskers now taking up residence on his slowly aging face.

As they settled back into their individual tasks, she was reminded of the number of years since their fateful meeting. She was still a fresh-faced teenager, off on her first big adventure away from home as she attended medical school in Los Angeles. Thomas was a recovering football hero trying to keep his head above water as they struggled through their first year of medical school. And all the years that followed, they really never strayed far from who they were back then. He was still a strong, stable and calming influence in her life, and she continued to inspire him to new heights with her energy, drive and zest for life.

Despite the march of time, they remained true to themselves, and always to each other. Though the sharp color of her auburn hair had been dulled by the appearance of the occasionally increasing grays, and the lines of her face were beginning take permanent hold on her features, he still looked at her with those deep dark eyes that spoke to her of his love. Though his legs creaked and popped whenever he rose from a chair, and his midsection had begun to soften and expand with time, she still felt her breath hitch whenever he would tenderly lay his hands over her arms. As their youngest child would often report to anyone who would listen, they were the oldest love-struck teenagers alive.

She was interrupted from her thoughts when Thomas turned the page in his medical journal to ask, "You think the kid would take offense if I told him he needed a haircut?"

"I think he'd take more offense if you called him 'kid.'" He laughed at their private joke. Their youngest son had grown up in the shadow of three older brothers, and then proceeded to join his father's profession to boot. He was constantly fighting the stereotypes of the baby, and being thought of as the junior version of his father.

"Very true… But what's up with that hair?" It seemed strange to her that he would be fixating on Danny's mop of curly red hair any longer. After all, the boy was technically a grown man.

"Why are you so concerned about Danny's hair? I would think you'd be more worried about the fact that it's Friday night, and he's already put in seventy six hours this week, but he's still covering a twelve hour shift in the ER." She dropped her chopping knife to the board and looked him dead on.

"But that puts him over the eighty hour max for a seven day stretch… Who the hell authorized that?" He was pulling out his phone before she had a chance to answer. "Hello, let me speak to-"

"THOMAS! Hang up that phone."

He stared at her with wide eyes, but was drawn from his shock by the voice on the other end of the line. "What? Oh, ah, nevermind… I'll call back." He closed the call and asked his wife, "Why did you do tha-"

"You swore you wouldn't interfere with anything at the hospital for him." Thomas sunk in his seat at having been caught trying to break his own promise. "If you make that call, he'd never live it down. You know that."

"Sorry… It's just, Carter and I worked so hard to change the structure of the internships and residencies that I hate to see it abused like that. I wasn't even thinking about what my call would do to Danny." Stephanie wiped her hands off on a nearby towel and rounded the counter to stand beside her husband.

"He needs to figure this stuff out on his own, no matter how much he might benefit from your help." She laid a hand on his shoulder and he nodded. "And I wouldn't worry about the hair thing either." Thomas looked up and found a wicked glint in her eyes.

"It was a girl, wasn't it?" He shook his head when she smiled.

Stephanie scraped her fingertips over his stubbly face and said, "Some things are just genetic." Their shared laughter was almost enough to mask the stampeding feet of their eldest son as he barreled down the stairs in a rush.

He stopped cold once he saw his parents in an embrace. "Okay… I'm nearing thirty, and it's still weird that you two do that." He knelt down to tie his shoes and added, "Aren't you two too old for that stuff anyway?"

They laughed at his question, but as usual, Stephanie had the perfect comeback to end the conversation. "I don't know… You're Uncle Gil and Aunt Sara are still doing all right."

Michael stood up in a flash and his face showed exactly how he felt about that prospect. "Ew gross! And on that note, I'm late for the airport."

Thomas reached into his pocket and was about to throw him a set of keys when Michael produced a different set. "Mom already said I could take the Thing, but thanks anyway, Pop." He turned for the garage and then had a second thought. "Hey, Mom? Are you sure you don't want to go out for dinner? I don't want you going to a lot of trouble or anyth-"

"Quit arguing with me and go to the airport…" She looked at her watch and saw that it was already quarter to four. "You've only got thirty minutes to make it to McCarran, in rush hour traffic, on a Friday night."

He looked at his own watch and swore out loud as he raced for the door.

"Has that kid ever been on time for anything?" Thomas stood up from his stool and kissed Stephanie on the forehead as he prepared to return to the library.

"Not since he was born, I'm afraid."

Returning to their endeavors, they tried to keep busy as they waited for the arrival of their special guest. Neither one had spoken to the other about the development, but they both understood that Michael was an insanely private person, so the fact that he was bringing anyone home to meet them was a big deal.

He had never brought anyone to the house before, and when she questioned him about it on a previous visit, she was surprised by his answer. Michael told her that their family was something he treasured, and he never wanted to cheapen its importance by bringing anyone home that he was not absolutely sure about, because it would not be fair to them, or the family. So, when he informed them that he had invited someone for the weekend, they were shocked. This was a very _big_ deal.

As Stephanie checked the roasting pan once more, she looked at her watch. It had been almost ninety minutes since Michael darted out through the garage, which meant that he would be returning shortly. She decided that immediate action was necessary and called out to her husband. "Thomas?! I need you to set the tab-"

He snuck up beside her and kissed her cheek before she could finish bellowing the instructions. "You don't have to yell, Babe."

She clutched a hand to her chest to contain her fright. "Jesus! Where'd you come from?!"

"Sorry… I wanted to check on those new plants on the side of the house. Looks like the moth balls did the trick." He nudged her out of the way and reached into the cupboard to retrieve the plates.

"No more litterbox treatment?"

"Not even a tuft of fur in the spines. Little buggers have finally gotten the clue." His pride was evident in the wide grin on his broad face.

"My husband…the great feline tamer of Summerlin. Be still my heart." She gave him a mock gesture of gentility and fluttered her lashes to add to the joke.

However, the joke was on her when he turned around and caught her in his arms. "Anything for my girl." He then proceeded to rub his chin into the crook of her neck until she started to laugh uncontrollably.

"I give!" He released her from his hold and proudly went back to work. "Anymore of that and I'm gonna have to explain why I'm wearing a scarf in July." As he passed by her again, she bumped him with her hip and added, "And I haven't had to do that since med school." He wore a lopsided grin as he took the first plates into the dining room.

Satisfied that everything was ready to go, Stephanie turned to reach into the refrigerator for the salad dressing. As she dug through the carefully capped carafes on the door, Thomas called out from the dining room. "You make it really hard to set the table with all this crap laying around."

She was suddenly reminded about her latest scrapbook project. "Shit!" The dressing all but forgotten for the moment, she rushed into the next room to survey the disaster.

Over every square centimeter of the expansive table were countless family photos and a healthy supply of scrapbooking materials. Not until she started going through the mass of photographic evidence did she realize exactly how much time her family had spent at the beach over the years.

Thomas began leafing through the photos as she surveyed the damage. "Man… For a bunch of people living in the desert, we sure go to the beach a lot." He set the plates down when he found a scrapbook page that looked completed. "Wow!" He grabbed the page and took a closer look. "Honey, this is fantastic!"

Stephanie moved to stand beside him so that she could see what he was talking about.

He was carefully examining the page she had created with some of the pictures of her uncle and his family at the beach over the years. Her favorite on that page was the one of her uncle standing next to the ice cream truck. Whenever they all went to the beach, they knew, without a doubt, that if Uncle Gil was nowhere to be found, he must have heard the bells from an ice cream truck. When the kids were younger, he usually had a little crowd with him as well.

She also thoroughly enjoyed the picture of Sara and Lilli walking back to the parking area after a white water surfing trip in the mountains. To her, that picture epitomized the relationship between the mother and daughter. As alike as they both were, they were still individuals with their own way of doing things, even if they shared common goals.

However, the picture that always captured her heart was one that her son Jimmy had taken when he was still very young. That one sat at the top of a stack of photos on the other pages of beach paper.

It was a picture of herself, Sara, Greg's wife Kirsten, their good friend Sandi Phillips, Lilli and Greg's oldest daughter Birget as they stood side by side, staring off at the horizon over the surf. With that picture, she was granted a view into her son's future, and it gave her the tiniest glimpse into how the supposed black sheep of her family looked at the world around him.

Giving him the camera for his birthday had been a last minute decision on her part. He had been tinkering around with an old camera he found in a drawer some weeks earlier, and delighted in the fact that he finally found something to allow him to connect with the world. Her little Piglet had been the source of great concern in the time leading up to that fateful trip.

Jimmy was smaller than her other children, had suffered through intense bouts of respiratory ailments early in his life, and often seemed to feel like the odd-man out in most things with the family. He was the spitting image of his father, only in miniature, but even that made him stand out from the other kids. He had two tall, blonde, strong, athletic and outgoing older brothers. Even his little brother was taller than him by the age of five, and with his shock of deep red, curly hair, it only served to make Jimmy stand out even more. No, Jimmy's saving grace had come in the form of his quiet, introspective, slightly obsessed cousin Max.

Max was nearly a year younger than Jimmy, and still managed to get three grades ahead of her son, but the two shared a special connection over the years. Jimmy saw himself as Max's protector in all things, even when Max grew taller than him by the age of thirteen, he was still making sure his "little cousin" was okay. They were good for each other. Max helped Jimmy when he struggled in school, and Jimmy often forced Max from living inside of his own head a little too much. Warrick often referred to them as Mutt and Jeff, because of their incredibly dissimilar appearances, and their unbreakable friendship.

Stephanie was taken out of her thoughts as Thomas commented on one of the pictures. "I love that picture of Jimmy and Max together." He put an arm around his wife's back and added, "Mutt and Jeff ride the wild surf." She smiled at her husband's mention of Warrick's little joke.

Before they could get too far into the trip down memory lane, she heard the garage door open, and they both knew they had run out of time. Surveying the situation, Stephanie declared, "It's useless… Let's eat in the solarium?"

"Good plan." He dropped the page carefully back on the dining table and kissed his wife on the cheek. "I'll go blast the chiller in there and set the table."

The change in location also meant that there would be a change in serving as well. So she went to the kitchen to prepare the salads herself, instead of hauling the big bowl out to the small table in the solarium.

Before the twins left for college, they decided to give their mother a graduation present, and converted the barely used slab of patio into a fully enclosed solarium. They installed plant boxes throughout the room, and set up a watering system for her as well. The twins were old enough to have remembered visiting their grandmother's garden in San Francisco, and they knew how much their own mother missed being able to garden, simply because she lived in the desert.

They had even traveled all the way to San Francisco and back, in order to remove the sweet peas from the old house (with the current owner's permission, of course) so that they could transplant them in the solarium for her. She was completely blown away by the care her boys had taken to provide her with a little space, and piece of her childhood. It also made their departure bittersweet, but in the end, she knew that they had managed to raise two fine young men to send out into the world.

When Thomas returned to the kitchen, his task complete, both he and Stephanie looked to the garage door, and then their watches. Thomas was the first to speak. "They haven't come in yet?"

The moment the words left his lips, the door was flung open and a small man carrying several large bags came bursting into the house. "Hey, sorry for dropping in like this, but Emily had a last minute meeting with a client and couldn't get me from the airport, so I just cabbed it over." With great effort, he turned and somehow managed to lift his foot enough to push the door closed. "Cab fare to my place would've been a nightmare, and besides, Devon is having a slumber party tonight, so I figured I could just crash here. You guys don't mind, right? Since Em was just bringing the whole crew out for the BBQ tomorrow anyway."

James O'Halleran found both of his parents staring blankly at him, and he was forced to wonder about the reason for their vacant looks. "Mom? Pop? Is everything okay?"

His mother was the first to break the spell. "I'm sorry, Honey… Yes, everything is fine. We were just expecting someone else, and you hadn't called, so we didn't even know you were getting in today." Stephanie and Thomas stepped forward to help their son with his cumbersome bags. "It's good to see you, Jimmy."

"I was beginning to think I did something wrong again, with the way you guys were staring at me…" He stopped himself and then looked up at his father as the man helped him to remove the large duffle strap thrown over his shoulder. "But I did call… I talked to Danny-…" He shook his head in disgust when he realized what had happened, "Little ferret didn't tell you I called, did he?"

Thomas laughed at his son's question and answered, "That would be a big no." He turned to his wife and remarked, "And you thought Bethie was a phone hog?"

"Ah, yeah… She could be on her cell, the land line and then I'd get a call on my cell from somebody trying to reach her at the same time, because she'd maxed out the lines on the other phones. That girl is the reason conference calls and multi-line phone systems were invented." Once he was free of the bags, Stephanie stepped in and placed a kiss on her son's cheek before drawing him into a hug. "You are welcome to crash here whenever you like, Jimmy, but we need to clear this crap out from in front of the door before your brother gets home."

"Screw him… Danny can trip over all of it for not telling you guys I called." James winked at his father to show that he was only kidding, mostly.

"Wrong brother…which is why we should get this stuff into the guest room, son." Thomas walked off toward the back of the house with the large duffle and the smaller backpack.

"Did Tammy finally kick Paddy out of the house for some peace and quiet, or what?" James picked up the remaining bags and headed in after his father.

"Strike two… Good thing you only have three brothers, because you'd be out." Stephanie retrieved the jacket he had dropped onto the floor and went to hang it up in the hall closet. "Now I know why you went with swimming instead of baseball."

As she was about to turn and head back into the kitchen, Stephanie was smacked in the back with the garage door.

"Mom… Pop left the garage door open again and there's a bun-." Michael found the resistance to the door and stopped suddenly. "Oh god! I'm sorry, Mom… Are you okay?" He slipped in through the opening, careful not to push the door any further into his mother.

"You got the most padded spot, so I should live." She pushed aside her son's concern immediately with her broad smile.

"I'm sorry, Momma… I should have been more careful." He looked her up and down to make sure she really was okay before he turned back to the garage and said, "Is there a reason Pop left a bunch of boxes in the middle of the garage, and can I move them to get the car in?"

"Good Grief! How much stuff did your brother bring home, anyway?" Stephanie marched right into the garage to inspect the problem.

"I'll get 'em, Mom…" Michael quickly followed behind her, confused by her response and worried that she would try to pick up the boxes herself. "They're really heavy. Did Danny start packing bricks, or something?"

Just as he suspected, she instantly bent down to lift one of the boxes out of the way. She looked around the garage and found a good spot for the box. As she walked to the bare corner, she said, "Danny's at the hospital… These are the work of the Munchkin."

He grabbed a stack of the boxes to keep them out of her reach and followed her movements. "Jimmy?"

"Yeah, he got back early and is spending the night." She turned to find him right behind her.

From inside the house she heard fast footfalls on the wood flooring and a holler came out. "I'll get 'em, Mom!"

James and his father were outside in an instant, once they realized that Stephanie had gone into the garage. The last thing anyone wanted was for her to pick up a heavy box from the floor and hurt her back. When their youngest child was born, Stephanie suffered from some complications with the epidural, and it did a minor amount of nerve damage. The result was that she would occasionally get a shooting pain through her back and her legs would simply crumple beneath her. After several such episodes, they finally understood that they would happen most frequently when she tried to pick things up from the floor, especially if the items were heavy.

As they all met around the last stack of boxes, they were joined by a fifth person. "Can I help?"

Understanding flooded James' mind as he saw the looks on the faces of his family. Not willing to wait on formalities, James put out his hand and offered, "Hi… I'm the midget younger brother, James. Nice to finally meet you."

"Thanks… Judging by the boxes from Kodak, I'm gonna take it you're the photographer one?"

James laughed and nodded his head. "That would be correct… And since my brother seems to have forgotten his manners, these are our parents."

As his father stuck out his hand in greeting, Michael finally snapped out of his stupor, and tried to recover his bearings while his father spoke. "I'm glad you were able to get away for a visit. We've been looking forward to this…for a while now."

Before his mother could begin to speak, Michael found his voice and moved around to stand in front of his family when he finally took control of the conversation. "Mom… Pop… Jimmy… I want to introduce you all to…" He paused for a moment and turned to look into the softest brown eyes he had ever known, and where he found the courage to finally say it. "…the one." He squeezed the hand that was slipped into the one that hung nervously at his side. "Geoffrey, these are my folks."

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_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	4. Part 4: S is for Saturdays

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Had to babysit with this one a little while longer than normal, but I wanted to make sure it was good. I hope that it lives up to the wait. Also, as a bonus, there are 3 graphics included with this story on the website linked in my profile.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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**_Part 4 – S is for Saturdays _**

Early mornings had been her refuge for a long time. The house was quiet, the kids were still asleep, and Thomas was usually in surgery by the time she woke up. She would wake and head straight for the kitchen to start the coffee, still dressed in her pajamas. The first cup of coffee and a good portion of the newspaper would be enjoyed before she even thought about getting ready for the day.

Now that her children were grown, and mostly moved away, it became her piece of solitude before becoming immersed in the evils of the Las Vegas underworld.

However, on Saturdays, it was her time to plan.

Saturdays meant family, and not just her little brood either. No, the whole crazy mixed up bunch would descend upon a single spot and spend the afternoon together; laughing, talking, playing and loving. Those Saturdays were the source for many of the family's fondest memories, and some of their most infamous stories.

Once they learned that she was pregnant with Danny, she and Thomas knew that their quaint little townhouse nestled perfectly between the hospital and the lab was no longer going to hold their growing family. When they started the search for their new house Stephanie had only two requests; that there would be room for several more children, and that it was setup to keep the Saturday tradition going for many, many years to come. And just as he had done since the moment they met, Thomas was ready to do whatever it took help her achieve those dreams.

From the moment he took her out to see the house in Summerlin, she knew that it was perfect. The little nursery room right off from the master suite on the main level, the enormous open kitchen with the long breakfast bar island, the high-ceilinged library, the spacious family room in the basement, the four bedrooms upstairs with the special split suite room for the twins, and the cozy guest suite in the basement all made her heart sing with the work her devoted husband had gone through to find that house. However, it was the great room and the deck that made the whole thing an absolutely perfect choice for their growing family.

She could see the happy evenings sharing company with her uncle and his family, she could picture her mother finally making the permanent move to stay with them, she could hear all the children running up and down the stairs in a frenzy, she could imagine sitting in the library reading to her grandchildren, and she knew that they would spend the rest of their lives in that house. They put in the bid that very same day and were packing the moving van within a month.

Her only regret since they had come to live there was in the fact that they failed to fill the house as much as she had wanted. As she sat down at the dining room table and sipped from her coffee mug, she felt a small chill crawl up her spine for the loss her family endured. Less than a year after Daniel was born she suffered the first in a string of miscarriages.

Their hopes for a house filled to the brim with children seemed to have come to an end. After several years of struggling to overcome the failed pregnancies, she and Thomas came to terms with the fact that they had been blessed with four beautiful sons and they would simply enjoy those blessings.

At first, when she started missing periods she was not concerned, because she had never been on a normal cycle. When she missed the third one, she shared with her mother the concern that she might have started menopause early, but her mother, ever the optimist, insisted she not self-diagnose and to see the doctor.

As the doctor congratulated her on not only being pregnant, but for also having made it past the critical twelve week mark she actually passed out. She woke up in the emergency room, hooked up to all of the monitors and surrounded by several very worried faces.

Slightly confused about what was going on, she looked to her husband for information, but then she heard the fetal heart monitor. Thomas immediately started asking how she was, but by that point she could not hear anything except that glorious, fast and steady heart beat. Thankfully, her mother understood what was going on and explained what was happening to everyone. They kept her overnight, just to be on the safe side, given her history, but she and Thomas stayed up the entire night listening to that wondrous sound.

It was a fairly uneventful pregnancy, but for the first time in her life, Stephanie was willing to do whatever the doctors told her in order to insure a safe delivery. In many ways it was more intense than her first pregnancy, because she had the hopes of seven years of heartache riding on the outcome.

Just as they had with the other pregnancies, they never allowed the doctor to determine the sex prior to the birth. They enjoyed the surprise, and they knew that they would be thrilled with whatever they had. She knew that if anyone could handle having five boys, it was she and Thomas. However, when the doctor handed her the baby and congratulated them on a beautiful little girl, Thomas practically squealed like one.

For a great many years, Stephanie had kept in the back of her mind the only name she ever wanted for the daughter she longed for, and when she was finally in her arms she knew why. Her little face concentrated into a single expression, and with barely five minutes of lifetime under her belt Mary Elizabeth O'Halleran smiled up at her mother.

After the nurses cleaned her up and brought the baby back to be with her parents, Stephanie became convinced that there was no other choice for the little girl's name. She was soft, and sweet, and her eyes were already trying to scan the room, taking in everything she possibly could with that same little grin plastered on her face. From the moment she was born, Bethie was the living embodiment of the two most important women in her mother's life; Elizabeth MacInnerney and Mary Grissom.

She reached over and found one of her favorite pictures of her youngest child.

They were supposed to go sailing that day, but a sudden storm had come up in the night and completely waterlogged the sloop. It seemed that her oldest brothers had forgotten to replace the cover after taking the boat out the day before, and the downpour completely flooded it. Bethie was more than a little upset at her sailing lesson being destroyed because "the stupid boys" had been careless.

After making the arrangements to salvage the nearly sunken sloop, Stephanie went to console her daughter's wounded soul. She found her crouched by the shore, sobbing into her knees.

It was heartbreaking and touching all at the same time. Before she went to Bethie's side, Stephanie snapped a quick picture. That photo has sat on her desk ever since, because it was the one picture that showed all the sides of her miracle child. She was strong, independent, driven and capable, but she was also sensitive and kind-hearted, feeling everything all at once, and never afraid to show any of it.

As she looked around the table, she was happy with the progress she had made with her little project. When Sara approached her with the idea for her uncle's big birthday celebration, she was not entirely sure of what she had gotten herself into at the time. The searching, the digging through old boxes, the scanning, the cropping, the themes, the papers, the embellishments, the layouts and the countless permutations she had to weed her way through in order to create a decent page.

She had listened to others go on and on about the scrapbooking they did, and Stephanie had always considered it to be a silly use of time, as well as wondering why they were complaining so much about the effort it took to do. She no longer held that same belief, and now had the utmost respect for anyone attempting to do this more than once in their lives. This was going to be her one and only scrapbook project in her life, and she was going to hold it over Sara's head for the rest of their lives.

Stephanie started to pick up the photos and place them back into the carefully labeled boxes. She needed to get everything cleaned up before the masses descended that afternoon. As she put the lid back on the box of vacation photos, she stood up to refill her coffee mug.

When she turned for the kitchen, she nearly jumped out of her own skin. "HOLY S-" She clutched at her chest and barely kept from dropping her mug when she caught sight of the bristle haired, muscular young man standing in the doorway.

"Ah… Sorry, ma'am. I was just looking for the coffee I smelled." Geoffrey stood uneasily in the doorway to the dining room, shifting from one foot to the other, his hands clasped behind his back, almost as though he were standing at parade rest.

Heaving a big sigh, Stephanie worked to regain her composure as she walked toward the obviously nervous young man. "I didn't mean to scream like that. It's just that I'm not used to anyone else being awake this time of day."

He nodded his understanding and continued to shift in position while she approached him. Stephanie put a hand on his arm as she passed and offered, "Go ahead and have a seat… I'll be right back."

She came back into the room a few minutes later carrying a tray with the coffee pot, two mugs, and a plate of muffins. Stephanie found the very polite young man standing by the table as he looked at one of the completed scrapbook pages. She cleared her throat and he was instantly standing at attention. "Sorry, ma'am… I was just admiring the work."

"Thank you." Stephanie brought the tray forward and Geoffrey stepped up to relieve her of the burden. "That's very sweet, but I promise, I'm perfectly okay carrying a tray."

"Sorry, ma'am. I jus-

"Okay, I feel like I've just stepped into a bad fifties television show. Can we find another word besides 'ma'am?' And stop apologizing, Geoffrey, there's been no crime committed." She moved passed him and tried to kick the chair out with her foot, but the extremely polite young man quickly pulled the chair away from the table and waited for her to sit. "Thank you very much."

"I'm afraid it's an unbreakable habit, Dr. O'Halleran." He carefully pushed her chair in and pulled out the one beside her when she nodded in its direction. "I've spent my entire adult life either in uniform or working to protect those that do, Ma'am. It ends up infecting your brain with protocol."

Stephanie shook her head at his next choice in names. "Okay, let's solve this quick." She poured coffee into the two mugs. "You have three choices for what you can call me… And those would be Stephanie, Steph, or-"

"Mom." James walked in with his own mug and held it out for his mother to keep pouring. "There are no other options, Geoff." He smiled and kissed his mother's temple before he reached out to snag a muffin playfully. "Many have tried, and they've all failed. If there's one thing you can say about her, it's that Momma is the single most stubborn woman on the face of the planet."

James seemed to think about that statement and simultaneously he and his mother both said, "Well, maybe the second most stubborn." They laughed, knowing who they both considered the most stubborn.

As he started to drink his coffee, James noticed the completed pages on the table. "I see you've been making some progress with Aunt Sara's little project?"

She pulled out the two completed pages at her son's mention of the scrapbook project. "I have to admit…I didn't really want to do it when she brought it up, but it's actually been a lot of fun."

Setting the muffin down and brushing off his hand on his shorts, James took one of the pages from his mother. "Yeah, Em's always telling me how much fun she has doing it, but I just figured it was more about getting together with all those other girls to do it."

"I don't know about that, since I'm usually working on my own. And it's not like I'd do this all the time, but going through all these old pictures has been a real treat." Stephanie pushed the other page over to Geoffrey. "You might find something interesting on that one."

The young man carefully looked over the page and tried to see why Stephanie would be sending it his way. "Looks like this family really likes the beach."

Laughing, James added, "You don't know the half of it, man… It seems to be hereditary, too. I can't get my kids out of the water when we're in San Diego." James leaned into his mother saying, "And poor Max has a toddler surf bum running around his place. Amanda says the little bugger turns anything flat into a surfing opportunity. Including her ironing board, and one of the experiments in Max's lab."

"I know all about that one. Sara called me in tears after she talked to Amanda. The two of us laughed for a good thirty minutes." Stephanie shook her head as the smile spread over her face. "It was even worse when she sent us the pictures later that day. He was wearing his 'Grandma's Little Angel' shirt at the time!"

When James and his mother calmed down from their laughter, they looked to see Geoffrey staring intently at the page in his hands. "See something good?"

"Well, that's quite a shot of Michael surfing. I knew he surfed, but I haven't gotten a chance to witness it yet. Where's the picture from?" He pointed to the picture of Michael in a tight crouch under a tall wave.

"Ah, that looks like my last trip to Hawaii, when I was shooting for the science in motion piece. Isn't it?" James looked to his mother for confirmation.

"Yeah, as I recall, Mikey had just finished his masters in pharmacological botany, and tagged along before he left for the Amazon to start his entomology doctorate." She pointed at the picture in the far corner and said, "But this is probably one of my favorites from Hawaii."

James peered over the other man's shoulder to get a better look at the picture with the boys and the infamous Uncle Daniel. "Oh wow! Is that Uncle Daniel?!"

Stephanie tried to explain to Geoffrey the significance of that picture. "We went to Hawaii for two reasons. First, because we're obviously a bunch of sand and surf junkies, but also because their Aunt Sara's brother Daniel lived there. He'd been stationed at Pearl when he was in the Navy and he just couldn't bring himself to leave the islands afterwards."

Thomas came into the dining room at that point and picked up the story. "He asked the whole family to come down for a visit that year. So, we packed up all the kids, and spent two weeks on the islands, doing everything under the sun. Daniel spent a lot of time with the kids, showing them everything he could think of, and spoiling them absolutely rotten. In that picture, he told the boys if they could beat him to the marker, they'd take a trip to the shape shop the next day to get new boards. I thought for sure your mother and Sara were going to come uncorked on the poor guy, but Uncle Gil intervened and told them to let him do what made him happy."

Stephanie shook her head and leaned back into her husband's touch as he came to stand behind her. "What Uncle Gil didn't tell us, until we got back to the states, was that Daniel was sick. He hadn't known before we left for Hawaii, but he figured it out while we were there. Daniel made him swear that he wouldn't spill the beans until later." She sighed, Thomas squeezed her shoulders a little and she continued, "Daniel died the week after we were there. According to his lawyer, he'd been living on borrowed time for over a year, but he didn't want to worry anyone. He made all of his own arrangements, left most of his liquid assets to an island wildlife sanctuary, divvied up his personal items to Lilli and Max, and placed the beach house into a trust in the names of the Grissom and O'Halleran families and their descendants."

Thomas picked up the story when his wife began to falter. "Danny was the one that figured out the best way to handle the house. He said that we should loan it out to the Make A Wish Foundation, so they could have a place for other families to experience Hawaii the way Uncle Daniel always said it should be done."

Looking up into her husband's caring face, Stephanie added. "Danny and Sara's brother had a very special relationship, even more than sharing a name. So, they always tended to think along the same train, too."

"So, he's named after her brother?" Geoffrey appeared genuinely interested in the family history.

It was James' turn to get in on the storytelling. "Yeah, Aunt Sara was pretty young when she went into foster care, and Daniel was already in the Navy, so they'd lost touch when she was just a kid. I guess he saw an advertisement for a seminar or something that Aunt Sara was doing in Honolulu and recognized her right off." He gave his parents a wink and added, "Apparently, Aunt Sara still hasn't ever changed much, since I swear the woman looks the same as she did when I was a kid, and Uncle Daniel said the only difference he could see was that she was a foot taller and smiled a lot more."

They all shared a laugh at James' description of his favorite aunt.

"Anyway, the first time he'd left the island since the Navy was when he came to Vegas to meet the whole family. Mom was about to pop with Danny, so she wasn't getting around a whole lot." He gave his mother a goofy look to punctuate his joke.

"What my not-so-polite son is trying to say is, I was enormous when I had Danny. The fact that he weighed ten and a half pounds when he was born might have played into that equation though." Stephanie gave her son a disapproving glare that lasted all of two seconds before dissolving into a grin.

"Right… So, when Uncle Daniel first met Mom, he was a goner! He used to say that Mom needed to be at least fifteen years younger, so that he might've had a chance to steal her away from Pop. And Mike would always tell him that he was too short for her." His comment brought another round of laughter. "Anyway, Uncle Daniel and Mom spent a lot of time talking and stuff, since she was on maternity leave at the time. And I guess Mom was fidgeting really bad one day, so Uncle Daniel asked her what was up. Mom, having already had two pregnancies under her belt, figured it was just that she was at eight months, and nothing was comfortable."

"What you should know is that Daniel was a medic on his patrol ship. So, he had been given some basic medical training, in addition to his other skills on the boat," Thomas interjected the piece of information.

"Right, so he puts a hand on Mom's stomach, and could feel the little muscle contractions that my mother was apparently numb to by that point. And he tells Mom, 'I think we should get in the car and take a drive.' Mom, totally not registering what he's talking about, thinks he wants to go get something to eat. And he stops her from rattling off restaurants with 'I think we'll both be eating from the hospital cafeteria for a few days.'" James' face took on an impish glint as he spoke.

"It was immediately after he said that, that I felt the first BIG contraction. Twenty minutes later…we had Danny…in the family room." Geoffrey's face showed every ounce of his surprise, and they all laughed.

"Thomas got there in the ambulance right after Daniel and I got the baby wrapped up as we waited for them to take us to the hospital." He leaned down to kiss the top of his wife's head as she continued, "We decided…that any man able to help in that kind of capacity without skipping a beat deserved to have the kid named after him. And for the rest of his life, he and Danny always seemed to be in perfect sync with each other. I'm even a little inclined to believe that Daniel came into our lives at that point for a reason, and it certainly connected him to the family in a way that never could have happened otherwise."

Geoffrey smiled a little to himself and nodded his head to the side. "'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'" When he saw the strange looks on their faces, he tried to explain himself. "Sorry… I'm just a washed up Marine, so my own words rarely work as well as those of others for things like this, so I have a bad habit of using quotes. I was just saying, we can't always make sense of it, and sometimes you just have to take it on faith, these strange things that happen in our lives."

Michael chose that moment to sleepily amble into the dining room. He looked around the room at the contented faces of his family and grinned. He put a hand on Geoffrey's shoulder and said, "And you were sure you wouldn't fit in around here." The man relaxed with the gesture as he realized the looks he received from Michael's family were a genuine welcome for him.

As Michael continued past them all and made his way into the kitchen he called back, "Hey Mom…you still have any coffee left?"

Stephanie hollered into the kitchen after her son, "I started another pot, and it should be ready shortl-…" Her explanation was halted by the beeping emanating from the coffee maker.

"Sweet! Thanks, Mom."

Before they had a chance to continue their discussion, the sounds of rummaging leaked out from the kitchen. "Hey, Mom…are you using these mushrooms for anything?"

They all looked at each other, surprised by the odd non-sequitor.

"Or these spring onions and the cheese curds?" When she tried to answer, he hung out of the doorway leading to the kitchen and explained. "If you're not using them today, can I make an omelet?"

Shaking her head at the rapid-fire series of questions, Stephanie attempted to make sense of the jumbled mess. "Mushrooms, leftover from dinner last night… I've got plenty of onions, and the cheese curds are there because your brother's been addicted to them since he took that fishing trip to Wisconsin last year."

"Awesome!" Michael quickly disappeared into the kitchen once more, but resumed talking from the next room. "Anybody else want an omelet?"

James followed his brother into the kitchen saying, "Only if you leave the cayenne out of mine… That stuff wreaks havoc on my stomach."

Thomas shook his head as he too walked into the kitchen to chase after his boys. "No cheese for mine… Your mother seems to think I need to cut the fat out my diet."

The last thing she heard as the door finally closed on them was her two sons taunting their father about the recent appearance of his spare tire. Sipping from her coffee mug, Stephanie shook her head a little at the exchange. However, her laughter would return when Geoffrey leaned forward with a conspiratorial air and asked, "Has he always done his thinking with his stomach?"

Struggling to keep from spraying her coffee across the table, Stephanie finally squeaked out, "Unfortunately…yes."

"Whenever he's in town, I have to add another mile to my daily run just to keep up." Geoffrey's confession intrigued her, but he continued before she had the opportunity to question him about it. "Because I still work with the military, the only way to gain immediate respect from some of these guys is to keep up with the lifestyle."

"How long were you in the Marines, Geoff?"

Michael poked his head into the room and corrected his mother. "It's Geoffrey, Mom. He's not big on nicknames." He looked over his mother and asked, "Did you want an omelet? I can do an egg white one for you, since Mom keeps those in the fridge."

"No thanks… I'm good with a muffin." He gestured at the plate of muffins on the tray in front of him and Michael's mother.

"Your loss…" Michael turned his attention to his mother and asked, "What about you, Momma?"

Stephanie patted her midsection and answered, "I think my metabolism is finally slowing down, so I'm just sticking with the muffin today."

Shaking his head, Michael started back into the kitchen saying, "What's that mean…you've progressed from teenaged eating machine to a college freshman garbage masher?" Stephanie and Geoffrey laughed at his exclamation, but he continued from inside the kitchen. "Five kids and in her fifties before she gets her Freshman Ten!"

Unable to resist the temptation, Geoffrey called into the kitchen after him. "Like you have room to talk… The Human Garbage Disposal!"

Sitting back in her chair with a devious smirk on her face, Stephanie nodded her head and offered, "Touché!" Geoffrey's cheeks colored slightly at her remark, but she picked up her coffee mug again and raised it in his direction. "You're gonna fit in around here just fine."

He shrugged off her compliment and turned away from looking at her directly when he quietly said, "I sure hope so." He was grateful when she let the comment slip by without any obvious notice. The fact was that he was still incredibly nervous about meeting the whole family.

After the dinner with Michael's parents, Geoffrey finally understood why he had been so peculiar about keeping the majority of personal life outside of the domain of his family. Michael held his family on the highest of pedestals, and he never wanted to cheapen their existence by throwing recreational relationships in their faces. He knew that his family was unorthodox, but that they were also incredibly close, and Michael felt that it would be irresponsible of him to introduce people into their lives that he knew would not be around for the long haul. However, that realization also heaped another layer of anxiety to his visit.

Originally, they planned to attend the family retreat to the mountain cabin together, but an emergency assignment with the Pacific Fleet changed those plans. When Geoffrey learned that he would be able to get stateside before Michael returned to their home in D.C., he immediately put in for the ship-to-shore call from his floating assignment, which gave him several days to contemplate the hell he had just brought on himself.

Michael's parents and younger brother had been incredibly gracious and welcoming to him on his arrival, and despite the obligatory grilling he received at the hands of his mother, Geoffrey felt genuinely accepted by his partner's enigmatic family. He had heard all of the stories from Michael, and from Nick and R.J., but Geoffrey knew in his heart that none of it would prepare him for the reality of the thing. He was right.

Looking through the various beach themed pages, Geoffrey felt a swell of anxiety forming again.

He saw the picture of Patrick about to enter the water, and it reminded him that he had yet to meet the Michael's double. Geoffrey knew from Nick's description that Michael and Patrick were far more than just brothers. He also knew from the numerous phone calls he had over heard during the course of their relationship that they were incredibly close. They were good friends, and big fans of one another, and in the end, Geoffrey knew that his twin brother's opinion of him could be a very real stumbling block in their relationship.

Stephanie leaned over and gazed at the page he had in front of him. "That one in the bottom left corner…" She waited for him to find the black and white image of the women in front of the surf. "That was when I knew Jimmy was going to be an amazing photographer."

With their attention fixed on the image, she sighed with the memory. "It's a fantastic image… Who's all in the picture?"

She snapped back into the present and began to recite the names, pointing at each back, from left to right. "That would be me, and that's Michael's Aunt Sara. Next to her is our friend Greg's wife, Kirsten. That is the wife of my assistant chief coroner, Sandi Phillips. And the last two are Michael's cousin Lilli, and Greg's oldest daughter Birget."

"Wow… So, are you like the tallest woman in this family?" Stephanie chortled at his question. "Sorry, but you're a lot taller than most any woman I've ever met."

"No, you're right… I am exceptionally ta-"

She was interrupted by the boisterous entrance of yet another family member, "Practically an Amazon! Huh, Mom?" Patrick strode confidently into the dining room and leaned down to place a kiss on his mother's head.

"I don't know if I'd go that far, Paddy." She reached up to his hand as it rested on her shoulder. "But close enough." Stephanie turned to gaze upon her son, and found that he was dressed in only his running shorts and a tank top. "Good grief… You didn't run over here, did you?"

Patrick laughed at his mother's question and squeezed her shoulders. "In fact…I did." He let go of her shoulders and squeezed the excess flesh at his sides when he proclaimed, "The wife told me she was going to have get me bigger pants if I didn't stop adding on to the foundation here. So, I started running again. Never should have stopped, really, but the midgets drain a lot of the energy I used to use for running." The pointed look she gave him forced Patrick to surrender. "Oh stop… It's less than a mile from my house to yours, if I take the park. And it's only eighty degrees out there this time of morning."

His mother only nodded suspiciously at Patrick's answer. "Okay, and maybe Mike might've called me this morning to see if I wanted to swing by and go running with his visitor."

Geoffrey blushed at the lengths Michael had gone to in order to introduce him to his brother. But more than that, he was deeply impressed by his mother's interrogation techniques. "Wow… I think my boss might want to talk to you about that little maneuver. You didn't have to say a word, and barely even looked at him."

"You think that's bad…you should meet Bethie." A young man with a mop of curly red hair came shuffling into the dining room, and pushed Patrick away from his mother with a strategic shove. Daniel leaned down and softly kissed his mother's cheek before making his way through the room. "She'll call Mom from L.A. to tell her when she's thinking about doing something wrong, just to let her know she almost got in trouble."

Everyone chuckled at Daniel's drowsily delivered joke, but Stephanie was mildly annoyed by his rude entrance and exit through the dining room. She called after him, "Daniel Carter O'Halleran, you were taught better manners than that! Get back here and introduce yourself."

From the distance of the stairs, she heard her youngest son holler back, "We already met in the bathroom last night."

Stephanie nearly spat out her coffee with the offhand comment. "Excuse me?!"

"Too tired… Mikey can explain…" His voice became softer as he continued his path to his room. "I'm gonna crash out for a couple hours before the munchkin invasion begins."

Geoffrey was still trying to come up with a decent explanation for his meeting the youngest male of the house when Michael poked his head in from the kitchen. "Leave Danny alone, Mom… He got home from the ER and ran into Geoffrey when he got tired of waiting for me to get out of the shower in our room." He winked at his twin brother when his mirror started smirking at him. "And then the little worm got paged again, so he had to turn back around. Barely had enough time to change his drawers before he was back out to the hospital. It was a brief, but memorable meeting for everyone involved. If you hadn't been sleeping we'd have invited you to the party."

There seemed to be an unending stream of people through the O'Halleran house, and Geoffrey began to get to the distinct impression that it was not an unfamiliar phenomenon with this family.

Before he had a chance to finish processing that thought, Michael spoke to him from the kitchen, "You better get changed for that run…" As he began to holler, Patrick leaned forward and was about to take a muffin from the tray. "Before lard butt over there changes his mind and starts grazing on the muffins." Patrick froze in place, his mouth open as he was about to bite into the heavy breakfast item.

Geoffrey simply could not resist joining in on the fun. "Busted!"

Thomas and James came into the dining room as Patrick tried to recover his dignity. Shaking his head, Thomas patted the newest member of the family on the shoulder as he took the chair beside his wife. "Welcome to the madness, son."

James quietly took his seat on the other side of the table and added, "Mayhem and Chaos will be here later," as he started into his breakfast.

As he excused himself to quickly change into some running shorts and a gym shirt, Geoffrey felt something foreign to him throughout most of his life. The welcome and love found only in one place; home.

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_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	5. Part 5: On a Mission

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Between sickness, a broken tooth, and the general insanity that has become a real part of the months of September October to me in recent years, I just didn't have the time or inclination to write this chapter. I did finally get it done though, and it's a long one. There's some even more surprises in the version housed over at my website (linked in my profile).

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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**Part 5 -_ On a Mission _**

As he was the only one not currently draped with a child, manning a grill, stirring a pot, or demonstrating the proper technique for mounting a Cephaloleia beetle on a display meant for scientific purposes, Geoffrey was sent to locate the missing son in the depths of the catacombs the family called a basement. He had already gotten lost twice, first opening the door to the garage instead of the basement, and next when he turned right instead of left and ended up in a storage room that frightened him more than any haunted house ever could. Apparently, big families kept everything from their pasts. However, he did make a mental note to ask Michael about the bright red tandem tricycle he saw hanging from the ceiling.

His mission was to locate the room in which James had sequestered himself, for reasons unknown to his mother, and to safely escort him back through the catacombs and deliver him to the matriachs in the kitchen. Geoffrey suddenly felt like his Marine Corps drill instructors were a piece of cake next the formidable command of the lady of this house.

Upon breaching the door of the third room, he managed to stumble across an office. Not seeing his intended target residing within the room, he was about to turn back to the task at hand when something on the wall caught his attention. It was a painting, and it bore a resemblance to someone he was fairly certain he had seen before. Upon closer examination, he found that it looked an awful lot like the man Michael frequently referred to as his lifelong mentor; it was a painting of his Uncle Gil.

He stared at the subtle lines of the artwork and quickly realized that it must have been done many years ago, because, while the eyes were the same dazzling blue gems, the face was considerably younger. With his careful examination of the image, he failed to notice the footsteps behind him, until the owner spoke and then he nearly jumped out of his skin. "I always liked that one, too."

_So much for situational awareness_, he thought, as he struggled to get his heart back down inside his chest.

"Sorry about that… I was just making sure Momma hadn't come down here snooping this time. Didn't mean to scare the bejeebus out of you in the process." James made his way around him and took up his place behind the desk on the opposite side of the room.

"No sweat… I didn't need those five years you just shaved off my life." Geoffrey had taken an instant liking to the younger man, so it was easy to kid with him. He thumbed in the direction of the various frames of artwork and photos to ask, "Where'd these come from?"

"Ah… That would be my mother's version of a refrigerator art gallery. She's always been my biggest supporter." James' face took on the faint hue of blush as he attempted to shy away from the attention.

"Some of these look like they were before your time, so how'd you-…" Geoffrey was confused about how James could have been around to properly paint the obviously youthful image of Uncle Gil.

"Photographs… I was always fascinated with 'em. Mom had everything put in a computer archive a long time ago. So, when she saw how much I liked looking through the pictures, she had all the disks printed and put all the prints into a big laminated book for me when I was five." He reached over the desk and retrieved a large battered book from the pile he was obviously working on. Handing it over to Geoffrey, he admitted, "I've spent hours pouring over that book through the years, and now I have three kids doing the same thing. And from the looks of it, I might need to make another one, since they spend all their time asking where Daddy and everybody else is at."

He carefully opened the historical record of Michael's family and glanced through the first pages. "Wow… This is really fantastic. And your Mom put this together?"

"Ah, no…" James laughed at the idea of his mother, with four very active little boys, a professional career, and all of her other projects; having the time to sit down and make a photo album for fun. "According to Pop, she sent copies of the disks to some online service to have it printed up. All she had to do was label and document the pictures. Making that album would have taken away from golf lessons, swim practice, Cub Scouts and potty training Danny."

Geoffrey shook his head at James' answer. "Now there's a mental image I could've done without."

"No kidding!" He started stacking pieces of paper from the desktop into a shoebox beside a page of cardstock paper. "Looks like you got nominated to come dig me out of the basement, huh?"

"Yes… I was requested, by your mother and your aunt to come downstairs and extricate you from whatever it is you are doing and 'to bid you come in to dinner.'" He silently cursed himself. It never failed that when he was nervous, he would fall into quoting things to take the focus away from his own awkward verbal skills.

"Nice… Don't tell me… Aunt Sara'd have my hide if I forgot this one." James squinted his eyes and searched for the proper response. "Got it!" He stood and bowed in a flourish, "'Fair Geoffrey, I thank you for your pains.' Or something like that… Much Ado About Nothing, Act Two, Scene…um…" He shook his head for a moment, as though he was attempting to knock it loose from his brain.

"Scene Three; Leonato's Orchard." The aforementioned aunt entered the room shaking her head. "I can't believe you forgot that one, James."

"Be fair… I remembered the lines and the act, and it's not like I'm Danny or Bethie." He winked rakishly at Sara and quipped, "Those two could cite rote and verse the entire collection if you asked them to. Freaks of nature, if you ask me."

The slender woman chortled at his joke, but still came back with one of her own, "Must have something to do that red hair." With that, James burst out laughing.

As their laughter subsided, Geoffrey began to feel like he was an intruder in their conversation. He shifted nervously for a moment, but quickly found a soft, long fingered hand over his forearm. "Sorry, Geoffrey… It's just a little inside joke between James and I." Her touch had an oddly calming affect on him and he smiled his understanding.

"Yeah, Aunt Sara and I have a good time cutting it up a lot. But it's only because she's the only one who ever gets my jokes, so it makes it pretty easy. Everyone else just stares at me like I've just grown a second head." He winked again and went back to stacking things in the shoebox before he added, "Including my poor wife."

"Which brings me to why I came down…" Sara gracefully sat down in one of the chairs near the desk and went on to explain, "Emily called and said she was finally on her way. Devon's little friend didn't get picked up until a few minutes ago, so she couldn't leave right away."

"Figures." James rolled his eyes as he sat back in the chair to regard his visitors with his full attention. "That poor woman's spent a lifetime getting roped into one disaster after another."

Sara flashed an impish wink at Geoffrey and said, "Well, she did marry you, after all."

After the friendly laughter died away Sara gestured for Geoffrey to take the seat on the other side of the desk. "How are you holding up with all this insanity, Geoffrey?"

Geoffrey released a sigh as he sat nervously sat down on the chair. "I feel like I need a score card to keep up with everyone as they come in."

James let loose with a belly laugh at his confession. "Dude, I was born in this family, and I have to keep a cheat sheet to know what's what and who belongs to who anymore!"

Patting his forearm again, Sara confirmed her agreement with James. "It must be really confusing for an outsider, because I know sometimes I even have to remind myself where everyone fits in."

James began to dig through the briefcase on the floor beside him and explained, "First off, you gotta know that Uncle Gil is like everyone's Uncle, but nobody's at the same time. He was my grandfather's best friend and they worked together in San Francisco. Momma was like a toddler when he came along, and he spent so much time with her and their family that Grams basically declared him her uncle. Officially, Mom is his goddaughter, but they're a lot closer than that, and he's kind of filled in for her Pop since he died. He even gave Mom away at her wedding."

He continued to search for something in his briefcase as Sara commented on the family dynamics. "And nearly all of the 'aunts' and 'uncles' are really just godparent's, except for my brother Daniel and Thomas' sister Maddie, neither of which are still with us."

"Also make sure you pay attention to name distinctions." James pulled a folder from his case and started flipping through it as he explained, "Tommy and Thomas are two completely different people. Same with Nick and Niko. And just to make things even more fun…we have a Lillian and a Lily, both of whom go by the same _sounding_ name."

Sara seamlessly chimed in again, "Unless of course Mikey is involved, and then it's easy."

Laughing, James asked, "She's gonna cold-cock him for that one of these days, isn't she?"

"Probably," Sara's eyes rolled slightly with her answer.

"Found It!" James held up the print outs he had retrieved from the folder in his other hand. Handing it over the desk to Geoffrey, he explained, "These will save your bacon some day. I know it's helped me out of some tight spots a few times. Names, birthdates and who belongs to who, by generation. My wife is actually the one who puts it together for me, because she has trouble keeping up with this insane asylum, too."

Pouring over the precious document, Geoffrey tried desperately to commit as much of it to memory as humanly possible in the least amount of time. His first task was to hunt down a name he had heard mentioned several times during dinners at Michael's family friends house in D.C. Nick and R.J. talked about the man a lot, and he was sure he had not met him as yet, so he was curious about the man's identity.

His intent must have been obvious, because Sara instantly appeared to key into it. "Who are you looking for?"

He set the list down and shyly smiled as he shrugged his shoulders, "Oh, well… Nick and R.J. have mentioned someone a lot and I didn't think he was here yet, so I was just cur-"

A dark cloud fell over Sara's face the instant the words left his lips, and it immediately made him sorry for asking. He could tell that his question had caused her some pain, and he assumed that there was probably not a happy reason for the man's absence. "Warrick? Or 'Rick?" When she paused, he nodded. "Same guy, and he passed away…just over two years ago." She quickly swiped at her eye to whisk away a tear before adding, "It's still pretty fresh for most of us, but he and Nick were really close, and I think he may still be having a hard time letting go."

Everything suddenly made a lot more sense to him; the way R.J. always tried to steer the topic of conversation away from him, the mood shift in the room when he would be talked about, and that thousand yard stare Nick would get. He made another mental note to talk to Michael a little more about the details in the future.

James shifted something across the desk towards Sara and gave Geoffrey a conspiratorial wink. "Since you could've waited until I got hauled upstairs by the Marines, I assume you came down here to check on my progress with your little project?"

Geoffrey watched as the indomitable Aunt Sara quickly came back into her calm and reserved façade. It was something to see, and he finally understood why Michael always claimed that his Aunt Sara was the strongest person he knew. "Well, I suppose… Since I did come all the way down here, and I can see that you have been working on said project…I might as well take a little peek." Her right eye brow rose with her words, and Geoffrey had to suppress the grin forming on his face.

"Then you're really in luck…because I'm finished." He pushed the page the rest of the way across the desk at his aunt. "I only had a couple left when I took off from L.A., so I wanted to get it finished and passed off to you before heading out to the wastelands tonight."

Sara took the page from the desk and brought her other hand to cover her mouth in an attempt to contain the gasp that escaped upon seeing the scrapbook page. "Oh James! This is…amazing."

"I tried to find the pictures that Uncle Gil would like the most, and that won't get me killed once Momma sees it, too." James sat on the edge of his seat, waiting for the final verdict from his aunt. "I really wanted to capture the way Uncle Gil sees her… What do you think?"

Sara dropped the page onto the desk in front of Geoffrey as she stood up and closed the distance between her and James. Wrapping her arms around him as he stood up, she said, "It's absolutely perfect, kiddo… Perfect."

Geoffrey looked to James for permission to pick up the page, and as he wrapped his arms around his aunt, James nodded.

Geoffrey picked up the page and was instantly faced with images of the woman responsible for his partner's existence. Seeing Michael's mother portrayed in the various stages of her life was an eye opening experience. She was still a radiant woman, but in her youth, Geoffrey was convinced that the woman probably stopped traffic on more than one occasion. But it was the comfortable and confident demeanor that seeped from every photograph that truly struck him. It was the same look he saw every day, in Michael.

After she regained her composure once more, Sara moved around to look over Geoffrey's shoulder. He tried to hand the page back to her, but she refused and placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder. She reached out with her other hand and pointed to an aged, sepia-toned photograph of a toddler. "Where'd that one come from?"

James twisted around and determined which photo she was referring to before he answered, "Oh! That's one of the ones we found at Grams when we cleaned out the house after she passed away. The back said Mom was eighteen months old when it was taken at the park in Mission Hill."

"And this one?" She gestured to the image of the young girl writing in the sand.

"From my picture book… I think Mom said it came from a box of photos Nana Mary sent her when she was pregnant with the twins." He walked back to the other side of the desk and pulled another sheet of paper out of his briefcase. James briefly scanned the page before saying, "Ah, eight years old, the beach in Marina Del Ray when Uncle Gil and Grampop took her to L.A. for a basketball tournament. I guess they also saw Nana Mary while they were there. Uncle Gil took the picture and sent it Nana Mary."

She regarded him with a puzzled expression and asked, "You have that all written down?"

He looked up with his surprise and then chuckled, "Ah, no… I have the details written down, like ages, dates and locations, but the rest is from bugging the tar out of Mom asking her questions when I was stalling before I went to bed at night. The stories stayed with me, but the details got fuzzy, so I made sure to document all the pictures, too." His face betrayed a devilish thought and then James added, "And besides, Uncle Gil was always on me about not doing my homework, so I didn't want to mess this one up."

As she chuckled at James' joke, Sara glanced down at her wrist and immediately double checked her watch. "As much as I would love to stay here and look this over…they're gonna send down a search party any minute if we stay much longer."

Geoffrey carefully stood up from the chair and passed the scrapbook page over to Sara when he said, "I'll head back up and run a little interference for you." He turned to head out of the office when he stopped and looked back nervously, "Which way out?"

They both laughed at his request. "Left out of the door, down the hall, around the corner, stairs on the right, family warehouse of doom on the left."

"Got it… I've still got chills from my last run in with that warehouse." Geoffrey shuddered at the thought, and left the room to the amused laughter of the remaining inhabitants.

Successfully navigating his way back upstairs, Geoffrey was nearly knocked back through the door by the stampeding little people running through the hallway. As he finally made it through the door unharmed, he was met with the disapproving voice of the lady of the house. "Next midget I find running in this hallway is gonna peel onions for the next hour… Do you hear me?!"

A resounding chorus of "Yes Ma'am!" was called back from the family room.

Stephanie turned to find Geoffrey carefully peeking out from the door. "Sweet Jeebus! You weren't caught in that stampede, were you?"

He laughed at her concern and smiled. "Thankfully, the door was still between us when they ran by. I was just waiting until the coast was clear before I tried again."

Shaking her head, Stephanie took his hand and led him toward the family room. Stopping at the doorway, she cleared her throat and quickly found five pairs of eyes staring back at her. "I think everyone needs to stay in here for a little while and calm down. Did you all know that when you tore through my house you almost knocked poor Geoffrey down the stairs?"

Geoffrey instantly became uncomfortable with the attention being focused on him, but the frightened looks on each child's face made him feel like a first class jerk. He tried to speak again, but the glare he received from Michael's mother made him feel like he was a five year old about to get busted for breaking something, and he shrank back from her steely gaze.

"I want you all to think about what would've happened if Geoffrey hadn't been able to keep his balance and fell."

Before she could even finish another word, the oldest boy stood up and wiped a tear away when he addressed her. "We're sorry, Gamma. I told Chris he could pick the movie if he beat me to the TV. It's my fault." As he finished explaining the incident to his grandmother, the little boy hung his head, and the other children sat silently. They were all awaiting their judgment for the heinous act.

Geoffrey stood completely still and in total shock. Not only had the woman diffused the situation in a limited amount of time, but she also had a confession, and all of the parties involved were prepared to take their punishments. He decided that Stephanie probably had more on the ball than any government interrogator he had ever met. And he finally understood how she was able to handle not one, but two kids like Michael, in addition to the three others.

Another woman came up behind them and quietly informed the children of their penance. "Okay, I know that not a single one of you is ever going to run in Gamma's house again, so…you need to apologize to Geoffrey and then you guys can go outside and help Grampop with his chores."

One by one, each child got up and made their way to the doorway, their heads held down in reverence. The two smallest girls walked in front of the twins and reached out for his hands as they clumsily gave their apologies when they brought him down to crouch in front of them. After mangling his name with their toddler's mouths, they placed a tiny kiss on either side of his face. The twins were the next, and as they reached him, they simultaneously wrapped their arms around Geoffrey's neck and chorused "Sorry Uncle Geoffrey" into his ears.

Finally, the oldest boy, and apparent ring leader, came up, wiped another tear away and tried bravely to look him in the eye. Geoffrey briefly glanced up at the two women for some kind of clue as to what he should be doing and saw that they were both trying desperately to keep the grins from showing on their faces.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Geoffrey." The boy held out his hand to shake Geoffrey's and then heaved a deep sigh. "I hope we didn't mess up nothing."

Geoffrey found himself struggling to keep from smiling at the little boy's attempt to act like a man, because it was obvious to him that it meant a great deal to the child. So, he sucked in a breath and puffed out his chest as best as possible while crouching at kid level. He deepened his voice to a tone that befitted a Marine and addressed the boy. "That's alright. But next time…it's usually best to follow the general's orders, Little Man. We soldiers have commanding officers for a reason… It's because we still have a lot left to learn. Think you can do that?"

He watched as the boy took a deep breath, and puffed out his chest, in a direct mimic of Geoffrey's earlier action. Standing tall and just a little proud, he released Geoffrey's hand and gave him a little boy salute. "Yes Sir!" And with that he bounded out of the room and headed for the rest of his merry little band of midgets.

When Geoffrey finally stood back up, he found the highly amused faces of two women staring at him. "Too much?"

Reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder, the blonde woman shook her head and explained, "You did great… And without even knowing it, you just made that kid's whole year."

Stephanie chuckled, "Micah has been fixated on being a soldier for about a year now, and I'm pretty sure you just made a fan for life." She turned to her daughter-in-law and asked, "Does Thomas know he's about to get a whole bunch of helpers?"

"Yeah, we actually heard the commotion from outside, so he and Patrick asked me to get the kids. We thought they needed an outlet for all that energy. And it's not like Uncle Gil is much help out there anymore." The woman turned back to Geoffrey and moved in to embrace him. "And while this is an unusual way to make introductions…I am very happy to finally meet you, Geoffrey."

Laughing at his confused expression, Stephanie conceded to end his bewilderment. "Geoffrey, this is Patrick's wife Tammy."

"Oh! Hey." He blushed a little, but he was very excited to meet her as well. "I suppose I should have figured it out…" He awkwardly tried to gesture at her burgeoning belly and she chuffed at his gentle display.

"Yeah, being the pregnant one seems to be how everyone recognizes me." Tammy's hand dropped down to her belly as she laughed.

"Well, if you'd just lock that sex maniac out of the bedroom for a while, you might not have that problem anymore." Michael came up behind them and rested his hands on his mother's shoulders as he looked around her head to see what was going on.

Instead of giving Michael any further fuel to torment her, she simply turned to Geoffrey and asked, "Since you've got the other twin…does that mean I should give _you_ my condolences?"

"Nah…" Michael smiled when he saw the glint in his eye as Geoffrey prepared to deliver their favorite joke. "I've found that with both of us traveling so much, I haven't had enough time to get fed up with his antics just yet."

They started walking back down the hall to the kitchen as the laughter began to die away. Tammy hooked her arm through Geoffrey's as they walked and added, "Stick with me, Honey… I'll tell you exactly what to do when it starts."

When they reached the kitchen, they found Uncle Gil checking everything out on the stove. As he turned to see who was walking into the room, he gave Stephanie a guilty grin. "Just looking."

With her hands planted firmly on her hips, Stephanie fixed him with such a steely gaze that Geoffrey was fairly certain it was only for affect. "I thought I banned you from the kitchen a long time ago."

He quietly watched as the older gentlemen who met him at the driveway after his run with Patrick that morning made one corner of his mouth turn up into a time worn smirk just as his deep blue eyes began to sparkle with a mischief he was sure had been there since birth. "Would believe it was the Alzheimer's?"

Stephanie's brow rose with his comment. "Maybe…if you had Alzheimer's."

Uncle Gil shrugged and gave in to her demands. "Can't blame me for trying…but I really came in to get a glass of water."

The conversation was quickly joined by Sara, who was looking at her watch as she remarked, "Ya know…that didn't work with the kids when they didn't want to take a nap either. So, don't even think it'll work now."

Geoffrey saw the faintest hint of pink rise in the man's creased cheeks when he realized he had been thoroughly busted. "Yes, well…there is that, Dear." He bowed slightly to his wife and then to the lady of the house before he shuffled toward the door.

Before he could escape the stern gazes of his wife and niece, another woman came waltzing into the kitchen. Without waiting for introductions, or hearing where the conversation was at, she simply burst in with an exclamation that left little doubt as to her identity. "I know, I know… I'm late again, but Steph you have _**got**_ to do something about that weekend guy before I'm forced to stuff him in a drawer and call it a draw." She stopped short when she realized the old man was caught in her path. "Daddy!" She looked at her watch, "What're you doing up?"

He kissed the flustered woman on the cheek and patted Geoffrey's arm as he passed by to exit the kitchen. "Take my advice, Son… Just do whatever they tell you before they start to gang up on you. It's not a pretty sight."

The women all shared a knowing look between them as he called over his shoulder, "I'll be in Thomas' office taking my nap. Try not to start the fun without me."

Once their laughter died away, the latest arrival suddenly noticed something out of the ordinary. The squeak that came out of her throat could hardly be called sophisticated, but when she launched herself across the room to leap up into Michael's arms, Geoffrey knew without a doubt who she was.

"Mighty Mouse!!!"

What followed was a mass of wholly unintelligible gibberish, as far as he could discern, but the other women in the room seemed completely uninterested in the exchange and went back to preparing the food as Michael and his cousin Lilli yammered on. Geoffrey was relegated to waiting for a pause in the melee before any actual introductions could be made.

As he waited for an opening, Tammy nudged him a little and then put a peeler in his hand as she gestured at the carrots. "This could last a while… It's been more than a year since they've actually seen each other."

Eventually, the two cousins seemed to remember that there were other people in the room. Smiling they both walked up to the kitchen island and began to re-engage the rest of the room. "Sorry about that… Has everyone's hearing recovered?"

Her mother shrugged, "I've spent the last thirty years with your father and his bugs, a little squeaking doesn't even register anymore."

When the younger woman came to stand next to her mother, Geoffrey was struck with the unbelievable resemblance. Their builds, their posture and their features appeared to be exact copies, but at different stages in life. The only real differences he could find were a more narrow forehead, a slightly stronger jaw, and while both sets of eyes were dark, Lilli's seemed to have shifted away from the soft brown of her mother's to an almost inky color; not entirely black or blue, but most definitely not brown.

Tammy seemed to notice his staring, and she gave him another nudge. "Eerie, isn't it?" He caught her eye and it helped to break the stare. "It was even worse before Aunt Sara's hair _finally_ started showing the gray."

Michael mussed Lilli's hair and quipped, "Attack of the Clones. I'm still convinced they were just some of Uncle Gil's DNA experiments."

Having slipped in unnoticed during the commotion, James added his own wit to the discussion, "Then how do you explain Max?"

Without skipping a beat, Lilli countered with, "Failure number sixty-six, lot one-one-three-eight."

Chuckling, Geoffrey kept his gaze on the task at hand. While he was not without any cooking skills, he knew from his time with Michael that cooking was something of an art form in his family, and he did not want to mess anything up. When things grew strangely quiet, he looked up to find that the focus was now squarely upon him. He carefully set down the peeler and the newly skinned carrot onto the cutting surface before he wiped his hands off on the towel that was flipped to him by Tammy.

He tried to affect a calm and solid composure when he asked, "Yes?"

Watching as Lilli turned to Michael, who was smirking from ear to ear at that point, he worried about what was about to come next. "You didn't?"

The next few moments were a barrage of pointed, but incredibly vague questions and answers. Geoffrey found it difficult just to keep up, so there was simply no point in trying to figure out what was going on behind the dialog. He just hoped that everything would still be standing at the end.

"I did."

"And you couldn't be bothered to tell me?"

"Kind of ruins the surprise that way."

"And what if I bailed today?"

"Not unless you wanted to incur the wrath."

"I was totally gonna sleep in, ya know?"

"You never sleep."

"That's not fair."

"Since when was that part of the rules?"

"Since I said so."

"Like that ever worked."

"I swear I'm gonna deck you one of these days."

"Get a ladder."

"You are so asking for it."

"I dare you."

"I'm so gonna hold this over your head."

"What's new? I'm still paying for the frog in your shirt when we were five."

"I still get freaked when I hear 'em croaking."

"Amphibi-phobic."

"That's not funny."

"It is on this side."

"Must be the lack of oxygen up there."

They were still going strong when Patrick snuck in behind him and whispered to Geoffrey, "They could do this for hours…and have." He turned to see Patrick's wink as he added, "But I know the trick to shut 'em both up."

He watched as Patrick tapped his wife on the shoulder and gestured for her to cover her ears; Geoffrey followed suit.

Taking in a deep breath, Patrick puffed up his chest and prepared to sound the alert. **"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOMMMM!!! Mikey and Lilli won't shut uuuu-uuup!" **

Caught like two deer in the headlights, Geoffrey watched in amazement as both of the offending parties stood perfectly still and appeared to be completely frightened at the prospect that they were actually in trouble. As the women laughed at the scene, Patrick clapped Geoffrey on the back and said, "Works every time."

Michael reached around Lilli and Geoffrey to slap his brother in the head, "Tattletale!"

A nearly identical pair of little toe-headed children peeked in from the patio doors and screamed, "Grampop says knock it off!" before they giggled and slammed the door shut behind them. The display only fueled everyone's laughter as Lilli and Michael blushed from the attention.

As Uncle Gil shuffled back into the kitchen he kissed his daughter on the cheek and smirked. "Good to know that some things never change around here." He reached for the bottle of juice being handed to him by his wife as he made his way through the kitchen. "I'm going back outside with Thomas and the children…where it's a little quieter."

After her father's well-timed exit, Lilli finally remembered that there was still some unfinished business. She crossed the kitchen and began to give Geoffrey the once over. The others in the room casually watched the inspection with amused grins decorating their faces.

When she eventually appeared to make a judgment, she turned back to Michael and asked, "A Marine? Really? You couldn't have done something a little less stereotypical than a guy in uniform?"

Michael, never one to back down from a chance to snark at anyone simply countered with, "Jealous?"

As if to demonstrate their compatibility, Geoffrey was unable to stop the comment that flew from his lips, "Because I still have a few friends in the Corps, and it wouldn't take much to call one of them in on a mission of mercy."

With Lilli's mouth hanging fully agape, Michael went to stand beside his partner and draped his arm over Geoffrey's shoulder to say, "And _THAT_ is why I brought him home!" The room exploded in laughter with the exchange.

After recovering from her surprise, Lilli introduced herself properly, and gladly welcomed Geoffrey into the family.

Once the meal preparations were finished, the table was set, and the food was brought into the dining room. Standing over the completed table, Stephanie looked around to see everyone hovering near the room. With a glance at her watch, she began to wonder of they should go ahead and get the kids started, instead of waiting for James' wife any longer.

As the thought was completing itself in her mind, the front door was thrown open and an excited eleven year old girl hollered into the house to announce their arrival. **"GAMMA!!! We're Here!" **

Stephanie walked out into the hallway just in time for the girl to hurl herself at her grandmother. "Gamma! We saw the comet! We really, really saw it!"

"No clouds last night?" Stephanie hugged the girl as she asked for the particulars.

"Not a one! We watched it go clear across the sky and it was the most amazing thing ever. When's the next one?" She was an energetic girl, but her enthusiasm for astronomy was her newfound love, and she threw herself into it completely. As Stephanie squeezed the girl's hand, she knew her son was in for some new challenges with her newest interest.

"Well, the next one I know about is only going to be visible from the Southern Hemisphere, so we might have to do some more research, Devon, honey." The girl hugged her tight and she knew they would be looking up the comet schedules before the night was over.

A haggard and obviously weary woman came trudging down the hall after the girl. "Can you make the next one not quite so late at night? They wouldn't go to sleep until they saw it, so we were up until almost three in the morning… Thanks a lot, Mom."

Stephanie laughed at her predicament, but she felt the need to offer her apologies. "Sorry, Em… But it was the next appearance." She reached down and ruffled the girl's hair before she offered, "Just be grateful it was on a weekend…this time."

"Don't even say that… I don't want to know." She was shaking her head in exasperated disgust as her husband made his way to her side. "And you…you better be sticking close to home for a while, Mister."

James embraced his wife as he laughed. "That would be the plan, my dear. That would be the plan." He kissed his wife's cheek and was met with a questioning expression on her face as she looked over at the man with the close cropped hair and the rigid posture. "Sorry… Emily, this…" he gestured at Geoffrey and Michael, "is Geoffrey."

"Okay… That explains my phone call with Micah so much more." Emily held out her hand, and Geoffrey took it into his. "It's nice to meet you, Geoffrey. And if Micah starts to get on your nerves about the soldier stuff, please let me know. He means well, but he's gotten a little obsessive lately."

"Not a problem… We've already come to an agreement, of sorts." Geoffrey instantly tried to remove any worry she might have had about the little boy's fascination.

Stephanie decided to interrupt before things went any further. She had food getting cold on the table, and grandchildren who were anxiously waiting to devour it. "Jimmy, why don't you get Em something to drink and…" she nodded at Patrick and Michael, "we'll get everyone in for dinner."

With those few short words, the whole family set to work. The twins went through the garage to round up their father and the kids outside. Tammy went back into the family room to wake the two youngest girls from their nap. Sara and Lilli worked to help Uncle Gil and Aunt Catherine off of the couch with a gentle pull. Geoffrey took his instruction from Stephanie, and left on another seek and recover mission, but this time to get Danny from his room upstairs after coming in from a shift at the hospital.

As everyone was getting seated at the table, Stephanie took a final survey of the situation. The only thing she could find that was missing; one son and his wife. Just as she made the realization, her husband asked, "What happened to Jimmy and Emily?" The moment the words were off of his lips, a loud, only slightly manish scream could be heard from the kitchen.

Patrick was the first to ask, "What the hell was that?"

Danny, still slightly groggy from his nap, croaked an unexpected answer to the mystery through a partial yawn, "Probably just found out he's gonna be poppa again."

Almost everyone at the table was stunned by his conclusion, but Patrick was the one to ask, "And just how would you know, smart guy?"

Lilli simply reached for the basket of rolls when she flippantly responded, "Because I told her to have Danny run the test to confirm it, Bonehead."

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_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	6. Part 6: Your Love is a Battlefield

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of looks into the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ My apologies for this chapter taking so long. I got caught up in another story, and then I've not been feeling like much like writing fan fiction with the strike, the crack-head episodes, and the fact that I have a new niece to distract me. Slowly I am getting back into the swing of things, so I hope the next chapter won't take nearly as long.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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**Part 6 -_ "Your Love is a Battlefield"_**

Being put in charge of stirring a pot was not exactly the promotion he had been counting on, but at the moment it was his responsibility to keep dinner from turning into a catastrophe as the every closet, box, file and drawer was being rifled through. Ever since returning from Las Vegas, the entire condo had been turned inside out to satisfy the crazed searches of a very determined man. However, at least he was good about cleaning everything as he went through it, instead of leaving the place in a state of destruction from the purpose of his mission.

Geoffrey had witnessed the behavior before, shortly after they moved in together, as Michael dug through every box and bag brought in, looking for a very specific piece of paper. When it was all said and done, every single box had been emptied and put away properly, and Michael found that one piece of paper. And the reason he needed it became a private joke between them. It was the spelling of Geoffrey's first, middle and last name, as he had scribbled it out on a register receipt after seeing his driver's license at the bar one night.

From that point forward, whenever Michael would start slipping into an anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive fit, Geoffrey would simply ask, "Where's the paper?" However, in this instance, the joke was not met favorably.

He had hoped that Michael would give up the search when he realized the time, but instead of making him stop and take notice, after reminding him about the time, Michael simply kicked into high gear and banished Geoffrey to the kitchen to keep on eye on the stove. When the door bell rang, he knew it was about to get ugly.

Geoffrey hollered over his shoulder, "Are you gonna get that?"

From somewhere in the depths of the office closet he could hear Michael shout, "I'm a little busy right now!" Before he had a chance to answer that terse comment, another one went sailing through the condo, "Just turn it all the way down and get the door…please?"

Doing as he was requested, Geoffrey carefully down the heat down on the stove, wiped his hands on a towel hanging from the oven handle and headed straight for the front door. On his walk there, he shot one last salvo to the crazed man in the back, "Are planning to ransack the office all night, or join us for dinner sometime this year?" His only answer was a loud growl, which he now knew Michael had gotten from his mother.

Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, Geoffrey did as any good Marine would do, and carried on with the mission; time to greet the guests. Upon opening the door, he found no face to meet him, but instincts told him to look down, and that's where he found the bright smile of the indomitable geologist and environmental crusader he had come to know as a friend. "R.J., the old man didn't leave you to suffer through dinner with us alone, did he?"

As he stepped out of her path, the woman powered her scooter to move forward through the door. But before she could answer and distinctive male voice spoke from the hallway, "Not likely… I'm just on pickup duty. The lady dropped her cane in the elevator." As he came into the condo, Nick clapped Geoffrey on the back. "Good to see you again, Soldier… It's been a while, huh?"

He laughed at Nick's frequent taunt. While Geoffrey was no longer a Marine, Nick seemed to enjoy giving him a little grief for his former lifestyle. "Hey, it's not my fault that all four of us can't get our travel orders synchronized. Maybe since the both of you are directors now, you could do something about that."

Watching as Nick helped R.J. carefully out of the scooter, Geoffrey enjoyed sending a little of that playful banter back at the older man. Once she was on her feet and secured to the cane, Nick looked back at him and shook his head. "Please… You know Fibbies and you Intelligence boys don't play well together. That'd be like asking the Indians to tell the cowboys where to pitch their tents. Just ain't gonna happen, kid."

"And nobody listens to crackpot environmentalists with rocks in their head." R.J. was never one to leave a volley unreturned, so she gladly joined the match.

In unison, Nick and Geoffrey responded, "Who would?"

Their comfortable laughter was interrupted when a loud noise erupted from the back of the condo. "ABOUT TIME!"

Nick cringed a little and threw a look over his shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

With a shake of his head, Geoffrey shrugged, "Sorry about that. His OCD took over and he's been on a mad hunt for some picture that he needed." Nick nodded his understanding. He knew full well where that trait came from.

As he began to take his seat on the couch next to his wife, Michael finally entered the room. However, he had the phone up to his ear and failed to notice that they had visitors. "Hey Pop… I found them. Call Momma off before she gets lost in the storage room… No, they were in the file with my papers… Because I used them in my senior thesis… Because I totally forgot I'd used them in my senior thesis… Yeah, I'll make a copy of the disk and send it with the page to Mom… Don't forget to holler at her. I don't want her climbing around in tha-… Why is she taking a nap? Is she okay?"

Michael started pacing as he continued his obvious conversation with his father. "Why is she pulling a night shift?... Is Lilli okay? Are you sure?... Pop, you know as well as I do that she's worse than Aunt Sara and Uncle Gil combined about that stuf-… Oh, well, if she did then I guess it's just a bug… I'll give her a call and check up later… Because I talk to her ten times a week when I'm not out of the country, that's why… Nope, nothing's changed… I can, if you want… Yeah, I'll get some disks first thing in the morning and do a mass copy…. You're probably right. It'd be a good idea to have another copy somewhere else… Yeah, I heard, and you can tell her that I emailed those pictures to her this afternoon."

He tucked the phone in between the side of his head and his shoulder as he started sorting through the photos in his hands, still oblivious to the people in the living room. "Yeah, sure, Pop… As far as I know it'll be both of us. I'm home bound until I can finish my doctoral thesis, but Geoffrey could get called out at the last minute…"

Dropping the photos, Michael resumed the pacing as he became frustrated. "No, he's already put in for the time off, but it's not really the kind of job where you can always say, 'no I won't be there'… No, Pop, it's not like he's a doctor, but he's in a very specialized field, and there aren't a whole lot of people who can do what he does… Something with computers… I have no idea… Because when he starts talking about it my eyes roll up into the back of my head and I wait for the buzzing noise to stop… No, that was Paddie… I'm the one that set the entertainment center on fire… Right, Spikey Mikey."

Finally turning toward the living room, Michael was shocked to find people in there, and they were staring at him. As the blush began to warm his cheeks, he turned back around and tried to end the conversation. "Yeah, Pop… Look, I gotta go… No, I've got company and I need to get off the phone… Love you back… Bye."

Geoffrey watched as Michael kept his back to them for a few more moments before turning around to face the firing squad. "Hey, guys… When did you get here?"

"Came in just before the girlish scream, all the way through to _Spikey Mikey_." R.J. took great pleasure in the grimace her taunt provoked.

"Right… I'll be living that one down again, I see." The condo was instantly filled with their combined laughter. Bending down to give R.J. a quick hug, Michael added, "At least I'm entertaining."

From beside her, Nick gave him a clap on the shoulder and agreed, "That you are, kid… That you are."

R.J. brushed at the side of her face as he pulled away and commented, "And incredibly hairy… Did you get mugged by a yak, or what?"

"Thank You!" Geoffrey slapped the backside of his hand into the opposite palm with his exclamation. "I've spent the last week trying to figure out what that looked like."

Nick pressed his brows together and scrutinized the situation before finally saying, "I was thinkin' more along the lines of Post-Modern Yeti."

With their raucous laughter in his ears, Michael tried to the play it off as he turned for the kitchen. "Before you all start in about having me shorn like a sheep, I'm gonna finish getting dinner ready." He gave Geoffrey a gentle shove as he walked past, "You can be their entertainment for a while."

Once Michael was safely in the kitchen Geoffrey sat across from their guests to begin the interrogation.

"So, I can see that you managed to survive the introductions with no visible injury… How are you doing otherwise?" R.J. took point in this debriefing.

Leaning back with a sigh, Geoffrey began, "Honestly, it was a lot easier than I expected. His parents are amazing, the kids are a blast, and the siblings… Well, I'm still a little worried about meeting the sister after all the things I've heard, but everyone else seemed great."

Nick laughed at his description. "Don't let them scare you… Bethie's just fine. A younger, slightly bossier version of her mother, but just fine."

With a well-placed elbow, R.J. managed to chastise Nick for his not-so-subtle joke. "You just wait… That kid's gonna make us all look bad before it's over." She turned back to Geoffrey and explained, "Beth is an extremely intelligent, mature, charismatic, and dynamic young lady. She's also got her mother's fearlessness, as well as her sense of humor, which is why they all give her so much grief. It's the only way they can get back at her for all the stunts she's pulled on them."

Michael leaned out of the kitchen to add, "Danny keeps his hair long for a reason… It'll be at least another year or so before that ink finally wears off."

Confused by the quick interjection, Geoffrey asked, "What ink?" Nick was laughing too hard to answer the question.

Through a barely suppressed grin, R.J. tried to explain, "I guess Danny was giving her a hard time before her prom, and so she put some of her chemistry knowledge to use and whipped up this astoundingly indelible ink. You could use it for tattooing, except that it wears off mostly in the first six months, leaving a faded remnant for about three to four years."

"What did she do with the ink?"

Wiping his hands off on a towel as he walked into the living room again, Michael answered, "In nice big letters, right along his hair line at the neck, which was exposed at the time with the fade he was wearing then, she managed to write 'DORK BOY' before he woke up."

Geoffrey grimaced at the image that must have presented. "She told me, after I managed to get Danny to stop trying to kill her, that she had wanted to write 'Super Dork,' but that there wasn't enough room on that part of his pinhead to make it readable from far away."

Finally recovered from his fit of laughter, Nick shook his head and said, "That girl has a serious temper… Reminds me a little of someone else." All three men looked in the direction of their scowling female companion.

"I know where you sleep, Stokes," R.J. said from behind a distinctly raised eyebrow.

"I never mentioned a name…so how's it that you know who I'm, referrin' to, my dear?" Nick returned a similar facial expression which quickly melted into another round of laughter.

"Anyway…" R.J. was obviously trying to bring the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Bethie will be fine, just as long as Michael tells her what's what. She pretty much takes anything he says as gospel." Michael blushed a little at her analysis of his relationship with his baby sister. "There's some serious hero worship that goes on there."

Nodding, Geoffrey admitted, "That's what Patrick told me. But it doesn't make me any less nervous about finally meeting her."

"I'd be more worried about Miss Lilli, than I would be about Bethie." They watched as Geoffrey tensed at the mention of Michael's favorite partner in crime.

As a means to rescue him from the questioning, Michael asked, "Ah, dinner's almost ready... Can you set the table for me, please?"

Jumping at the chance to escape the conversation, Geoffrey instantly got up and went to the kitchen. Once he was out of sight, Michael quietly tried to resolve the issue. "They kind of got into it a little Saturday. Aunt Sara and Paddy had to step in and break it up. It was nothing…really. But, he's still a little irked about the whole thing."

"What the hell happened?" R.J. was never one to mince words.

"Nothing, really. He was playing with Micah," He could tell both of them were trying to remember who that was. "Jimmy's little boy?" When they nodded, he continued, "And Micah's got it in his head that he wants to be a soldier right now, so when he found out Geoffrey was a Marine, he was all over that. Anyway, I guess they were horsing around on the floor, and Geoffrey was playing around at showing him ways to _subdue the enemy _and-"

"And Lilli bein' her mother's daughter, probably got a little upset with him and started on one of her anti-war rants, right?" Nick instantly knew what had happened as Michael explained. "So, didn't y'all get it resolved before you left?"

"I thought so… But he's a little sensitive about that stuff, and I guess it's bothering him more than he let on to begin with." Michael looked over his shoulder to make sure he was still in the kitchen before going on. "He's got such a soft spot for kids, and when she told him that he was damaging the boy's psyche with his 'war mongering' it got to him."

R.J. shook her head in disgust. "Someone should really have a talk with that girl about her ranting. She doesn't think about what she's saying, or who she might be hurting when she goes off like that."

"Believe me… A talk was had." Michael felt a little of the residual anger from the episode still in the back of his mind. "And after I got done with her, Aunt Cath went off. She apologized, and I thought it was taken care of, but when we got off the plane at National, I could tell something was bothering him. By the time we finally got home, I managed to get it out of him, but he's still pretty upset." Shaking his head in defeat, Michael finished with, "Not exactly the way I pictured things going, but there it is."

Nick reached out with a reassuring hand on Michael's knee and offered, "It'll all work out in the end. Lilli's opinionated, pig-headed and stubborn, but when she's finally gotten over that," Michael snorted at the notion. "She'll look at what happened and do what it takes to fix it. If for no other reason than because of what you two mean to each other. She's gotta know that you wouldn't bring just any guy to the family, and once she adds it all up in that big brain of hers, she'll come around to the truth."

Standing up, Michael shrugged and said, "I sure hope so… Since she's gonna be here next week for some NIH medical examiner's symposium."

R.J. laughed at his comment. "Then you've got nothing to worry about, Mike. Your mother will have her walking the straight and narrow so fast the poor girl won't know what hit her." When Michael gave her a puzzled look, she explained, "If there's one thing I know about your Mom, it's that she works well under pressure, and especially when there's a deadline on the horizon."

Nick put the final nail in the coffin. "Oh yeah… Otherwise, Lilli would've never been born in the first place."

Nodding his head, Michael was instantly reminded of the story about how his mother worked with Aunt Cath to get her aunt and uncle together before any of them were born. It was always one of his favorite stories, and realizing that his mother would never send Lilli out for a visit without putting her straight gave him some much needed relief. However, it still meant that he had to work on Geoffrey, as well. "Thanks… I appreciate it."

Geoffrey finally poked his head out of the kitchen and asked, "Is it safe to come out yet?"

"Yes, we're done talking about you now." Michael rolled his eyes at the question.

With his arms filled with plates, silverware, napkins and glasses, Geoffrey walked passed them and made a beeline for the table. "That's good, because the timer just went off and these things are heavy."

Michael excused himself to the kitchen as Geoffrey went about preparing the table. Calling into the kitchen, "Hey! Where do you want me to put these pictures?"

"Sorry, just put them on the shelf and take them to the office after dinner." Doing as requested, Geoffrey went back to getting the table ready for their dinner. Within a few minutes the food was being brought out to the table, and Nick began to help his wife from the couch.

Not missing a beat, Geoffrey moved from the table, after placing the last napkin, and went to assist Nick with his task. Settling in behind her left shoulder, Geoffrey reached around to grip R.J. below the arms and then lifted her from the couch. Once she was steady on her feet Nick handed her the cane, while Geoffrey held onto her left arm and started walking her to the table. There was no ceremony made about the help he gave, and it all happened without a word, only a comfortable smile shared between the two.

Shortly after being introduced to the couple, Geoffrey had slipped into a very familiar interaction with R.J. in regards to helping Nick to get her from one point to the other. It was never anything that was asked or offered, but he noticed that it was not always easy for either of them. His older sister was a nurse, and he had grown up helping her out at the nursing home on weekends. It was simply second nature for him to assist with the disabled. After hearing from Michael that R.J. was not normally as accommodating to people as she had been with him, he worried that he had made a mistake.

As they walked to the dining table, R.J. leaned into his side a little and he caught the grateful look she shared with him in the gesture. He no longer worried about it being a mistake, because he knew that she was glad for the help, and for the chance to give Nick a break from his duties.

Dinner was its normally rousing success. As always, Michael prepared a fantastic meal for them to share, and the conversations flowed freely. Sitting back in his chair, Nick was regaling them with his latest victory at the FBI.

"It was tight for a while, but once we determined the source of the fibers, everything just fell into place. Kidnappers pled guilty, and the parents got their closure after two months of pure hell. Probably one of the best cases we've handled in years." The pride was evident in his words.

"I heard a little about that one in a paper someone brought to camp, and I wondered if they tapped your unit for the case." Michael stood up and started gathering the plates. "Glad to hear that chief of yours has finally pulled his head out of his ass."

When Michael turned for the kitchen, he was met by Geoffrey with his hands outstretched. "I'll take those." A knowing smile passed between them before he relinquished the dishware.

Returning to the table, R.J. added, "His own ass…yes. But he's still got it at least partially buried in someone else's for the time being."

Nick bristled with her pointed comment and worked to change the topic. "The case is done, and my team is working on a presentation for the International Association of Forensic Sciences conference this Fall, based on the methods we used to determine the fibers and their sources."

"I think your cap is starting to look more like a headdress with all those feathers in it." R.J. picked up on his attempt to move the conversation, but she did not resist the temptation to joke with him.

Geoffrey came back into the room with a carafe of coffee and cups with saucers stacked on top of each other. "If they were little feathers, it could just be one of those weird cowboy things on the front."

"You're not helpin', kid." Nick took to the two cups on top and set them out for himself and his wife.

"Wasn't trying to." He handed Michael the other cups to put on the table and started pouring R.J.'s coffee. "But to change the subject away from work… Have you guys heard about this project Michael's mother is working on for the big party next month?"

R.J. stopped him from pouring with a gentle touch on his arm and asked, "Is that the picture thing she's doing?"

"Yeah… It's pretty impressive. I got to see several of the finished pages and I couldn't believe how detailed it is." He finished pouring Nick's coffee and moved to the other side of the table.

"Well, Steph's never been known to do anything half way, so I can imagine how far she'll go for this one." Nick dropped a few teaspoons of sugar into R.J.'s cup before setting up his own. "And because it's for Grissom, I bet she goes even farther off the deep end."

Topping off Michael's cup, Geoffrey finally sat down and concluded, "Yeah… And it seems to have become a family affair, too. I got to see the page that James did, and Sasquatch here is working on something as well."

"That sounds like Stephanie… I know she had me send her a bunch of pictures that we have a while back. And I think she also got some from Angela." Nick gave her a puzzled look and she elaborated. "Pictures of Sara from when they were in college together." His nod let her know that he understood. "So, what are you and Jimmy working on?"

"I can't speak for him…" Michael gave Geoffrey a pointed look before getting up from his seat. "But I can show you what I'm doing."

He disappeared into the back of the condo, leaving them to wait for his return. When he emerged from the hall, he cautiously carried a couple large sheets of cardstock. "Momma knew that I had a lot of stuff with Uncle Gil at work, because I have this side project I've been working on, so she asked me to do a couple of pages showing him in his work." He laid the first page in front of R.J.

"I'm not quite done with them yet. I had to find the picture from that trip we took with Uncle Gil the summer after graduation. Me, Lilli and Jimmy for two weeks with Uncle Gil in Central America." Michael reached back to the shelf and grabbed the photos he had been looking for when they arrived at the condo. Passing them to Nick, he continued, "It was one of the best expeditions I've ever been on, and Uncle Gil's last. I thought it would be a good idea to put some of those pictures into the scrapbook. I'm just not sure which ones to use."

Nick began to flip through the pictures as R.J. looked over to see them as well. He stopped on a picture of Michael and Lilli repelling through a waterfall together. "Where was this one taken?"

Michael craned his neck to see which one he was talking about. "Ah… Costa Rica, I think. That was the last day we were in the jungle and we came across some tour group that was running the lines. Lilli talked them into letting us join in, and Jimmy took the pictures. It was a total blast."

R.J. pointed at the picture in Nick's other hand and asked, "What's Jimmy doing in this one?"

"Oh, that's where he was testing his aquatic species photography system that he was developing with Uncle Gil. He used these little acrylic boxes filled with distilled water and this portable masking background to keep the lighting right, and he could take these fantastic pictures of the different aquatic species that were being studied." He stood up straight and shook his head. "Little munchkin actually managed to get this thing to work in the jungle by laying it all out on the rocks and using the light reflected off of their surface. Uncle Gil came back with pictures of two species nobody had ever been able to capture before with those little gadgets."

"Jimmy's always used Grissom's lab for his little experiments in photography. I remember when he set up those cameras in the physics lab to try and capture the point of impact during all of those force experiments they did in the forensics program." Nick handed the pictures back to Michael as he added, "But I guess all of you kids used that place as your own personal playground."

Michael laughed at Nick's analysis of their upbringing. "Yeah, well, we all spent a lot of time with Uncle Gil growing up, and the lab was just a part of that, I guess." He pointed to the picture of Patrick riding his bicycle in the greenhouse. "We learned about photosynthesis and how to ride a bike in the botany lab. About the differences between species of butterflies, as well as the beauty and art found in their markings. We were encouraged to discover all the wonders of science and life in that place, and when we had questions about anything, Uncle Gil was there to help us find the answers. Those answers came through the experiments, but they also came from just spending time with him."

Putting a comforting hand on his arm, R.J. smiled at him. "It's definitely a very special place." She looked over to Geoffrey and asked, "Did you get a chance to see it while you were there?"

Dragged back into the conversation, Geoffrey straightened up and answered her question, "Ah, yeah… We took that picture of him when we stopped by Monday morning for the tour."

Nick took a moment to glance at the picture of his aging mentor and friend. Wearing his typical uniform of a dark sweater over his standard golf shirt, he was hard at work behind a microscope, surrounded by the various insect specimens he had collected over the years. Despite the white hair and the wrinkled face, Nick would have recognized the man anywhere.

"I've gotta admit, it's an amazing place. And I think every person there would lay down for the guy. I've never seen a group of people so devoted to their boss before."

Nodding her head, R.J. agreed. "They have some serious devotion in that department, and I can tell you from experience, that only comes when the director is top notch."

"I just can't believe he's still there working every day at his age. Most people would just enjoy what they had and sit back to let someone else handle the work, but he doesn't seem to know when to stop." Geoffrey shook his head with the incredulity of the situation.

Chuffing at the notion that Grissom would ever stop working, Nick corrected the younger man. "For Grissom, lab work _is_ sittin' back. I've never seen a man more happy than when he could examine a bunch o' bugs, or test some niggling theory he had bouncing around in his head."

"I swear he turns into a wide-eyed ten year old when he's performing an experiment." R.J. added her opinion on the matter. "I once saw him walking a student through a simple chemical separation experiment. And the sheer joy he got from seeing this kid finally understand the process, and how it related to the rest of their work, it made everyone else around him excited about it. His classes, both graduate and undergrad, would fill with waiting lists every single term. But his labs were always open."

Michael nodded at the memory as she went on to explain, "Gil felt that learning didn't begin and end in the classroom, but that for people to truly learn they needed to put into practice the theories they were discovering. His classes had a certain number of lab experiments that had to be completed every term, but there was no set schedule for anyone to complete them. He used the lab work as a means to judge who was suited for the program and who wasn't. When someone would be in the lab week in and week out, and the required experiments were done, Gil knew that someone really had a hunger for the work."

"Everybody thinks that Grissom's completely deficient when it comes to understanding human nature, but the fact is that he's just the most amazing observer. He notices everything, but the trouble comes when he gets stuck inside his own head and doesn't do the things that make people think he's payin' attention." Nick gave a perfect summation of his former boss. "I found that one out myself…the hard way." R.J. laid a soft hand over his as they shared a knowing look.

"He doesn't always say a lot, and you're often left wondering how he feels about things sometimes, but when it's important, or you ask him a direct question he's always there with the answers." Michael shrugged for a moment and qualified his response with, "At least, he always has been for us kids."

R.J. continued to look over the page as a question began to form. "I know you want to put these pictures from the trip in here, but this is all stuff from the lab. How are you going to figure this in to the theme?"

Michael proceeded to hand her the other page with a sly smile on his face. "Like this."

Nick and his wife laughed at the new page as he pointed at the title; _And he walks through fields of… A Life's Work._ "That is priceless!"

"Some of these pictures look like they pre-date you." R.J. looked back at Michael.

"Yeah, they do actually. A few I got from Mom, Aunt Sara and Aunt Cath, and then some others I found through _alternative_ sources."

Through a raised eyebrow, R.J. shook her head and said, "Not only do I not like the way that sounds, I don't even want to know."

"It's perfectly above board. Just something from another project I've got going on. Totally harmless…" Michael looked back to Geoffrey for confirmation, only to find him shaking his head with a grin on his face. With a guilty shrug, Michael finally offered, "Mostly, anyway."

* * *

_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	7. Part 7: What's Forever For?

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of looks into the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ This was a short one, but I have another one already floating around in my head. I hope you enjoy this one, and everything else I have planned for this last story.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

_**Part 7 – "What's Forever For?" **_

The scissors slowly and precisely trailed along the edges of the people in the photograph depicting a graduation. The young man was proud and smiling, his mother close at his side, his diplomas tightly in his grasp. With a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in physics, there was plenty of reason for the pride on both of their faces.

_Like mother, like son. _

The corner of Sara's mouth quirked into a smile as she remembered the day her boy graduated from MIT. She never imagined that while he sat with her as she prepared for her doctoral dissertation in applied physics that one day her son would find his happiness in a similar field.

She supposed that nothing about her youngest child should ever surprise her, because from the day he was born, he surpassed any and all expectations on a daily basis. When he was born, he was already leading the race being nearly as big as his cousin almost a year his senior. It also marked the beginning of their uncanny friendship.

Max and Jimmy were the best of friends from the moment they met. Jimmy had a rough first year, but from the very first day he spent with Max, that all changed. The two boys seemed to thrive on each other, and they have spent a lifetime encouraging one another to success.

As Sara finished with the graduation photo, her fingers ran along the outline of a photo of the boy scouts and all of the pins on their hats. They were always challenging the other to get just one more badge, just one more patch. It was no wonder they both ended up becoming Eagle Scouts at the same time. She chuckled as she remembered Greg coming in from Los Angeles just to attend the ceremony.

Placing the graduation photo into its final position, Sara affixed the item and then held the page up to inspect her handiwork. All the stages of her son's life were represented on that page, from infancy to fatherhood. It never ceased to amaze her at how quickly the time passed. It seemed like only yesterday that she got the call that would forever change her life, and now she was not only a wife and mother, she was an aunt and grandmother, with more family and friends than she ever could have dreamed of as a lonely child hoping to survive foster care.

Once upon a time, she judged her success by her professional achievements, and her solve rates. Her respect came from how tough she was, and how well she could play ball with the big boys. But yesterday, she experienced one of her proudest moments when her granddaughter took the phone from her older brother and asserted her rights by proclaiming, "MY GAMMA!" She had no idea what was said after that, but she spent the rest of the day smiling because of the incident.

Sara's attention was still squarely on the page in front of her, so when a chin suddenly rested on her shoulder, she nearly came out of her own skin.

"DAMMIT, LILLI!" Clutching her chest, Sara tried to regain some of her sanity while her oldest child laughed at her mother's fright.

"Sorry, Mom… But it's not like I was quiet coming in." Lilli turned and went to the kitchen sink. She reached for a glass and poured her mother some water. As she handed the glass to her mother she asked, "What's got you on edge?"

Taking the glass she shook her head in disgust at the ease in which her daughter slipped into the roll of interrogator. _Like father, like daughter. _

"I am not on edge…_detective_." The tone of her voice told her daughter the exact meaning of her words. "I just wasn't expecting anyone home for a while… Especially not you, since I thought your flight didn't get in until tonight." She put the page down on the counter and moved to look at her calendar.

"Steph needed some help in the morgue tonight, so I took an earlier flight back this morning. Besides, I felt like maybe I was in the way or something." Lilli walked back to her mother's side and inspected the work being done there.

Sighing, Sara had hoped her daughter would make peace with her cousin and his partner during her visit. "I thought you were going to apologize?"

"What?" Lilli gave her a puzzled look until an understanding seemed to dawn on her, "Oh! No, Mom. We already buried the hatchet and it wasn't even in my head. No… I kind of got the impression that they hadn't gotten a whole lot of alone time since Michael got back from the jungle."

"Ah." That was all Sara needed to hear. While she was infinitely happy when any of the children was able to find a partner in life, she had absolutely no desire to know the details.

"Yeah… Between me, and Geoffrey's sister and her family, and Mikey's research stuff, I got the distinct feeling that they need a vacation from everything and everyone else." Lilli quickly zoomed in on the picture of she and her brother about to do something with buckets at the beach. "Oh man! I remember that trip. We got in sooooo much trouble on that trip."

Sara paused to catch up with her train of thought and looked at the picture to jog her memory. "Do you know how hard it is to know which episode you're referring to? There wasn't a single trip you two didn't get into some kind of trouble."

When her daughter laughed at the comment, she felt a warmth ignite deep in her chest. She would never cease to be amazed by the power of her children's laughter to heal her soul.

"Fair enough… But this time, we almost had to go home early because Daddy was really pissed off. That was the trip when me and Max filled the hot tub with ocean water." Sara cringed as she recalled the incident in question. "And kelp."

"Okay… You're right. Way too much trouble on that trip. And I still blame Steph." When her daughter screwed up her face in a giant question mark, Sara laughed out loud.

"What did Steph have to do with it?"

Sara put her hand on Lilli's shoulder and explained, "Two reasons… One, she taught you how to make terrariums in Brownies that Spring." Lilli covered her mouth with a hand to stifle her laugh as she recalled what had prompted her experiment with the hot tub. "And two, because she wasn't there to deal with your father after the fact."

When their laughter died down, Lilli took on a more serious expression, and Sara knew that her daughter was trying to work something out in her mind. She always got that look when she was putting together a puzzle. Sara kept busy cleaning up the cuttings as she waited for the inevitable, "Mom?"

Sara grinned at her inside knowledge of the inner workings of her family's minds. "Yes?"

"Steph and the guys missed a lot of trips around then. Was she sick or something?" Lilli turned around and leaned against the counter waiting for her mother's reply.

Taking a deep breath, Sara knew that there was no getting around such a direct question. As much as Lilli was like her father, she more like her mother when it came to her thirst for knowledge, and her stubbornness in finding the answers. "More like 'or something.'"

"That sounds like a tea answer." Lilli pushed off from the counter and went to the stove. As she retrieved the kettle, she paused to ask, "One cup or two?"

Tucking the rest of the photo supplies back into the folder, Sara smirked and answered, "Go ahead and fill it up."

The two women performed all of the steps in their lifelong ritual. Lilli prepared the water and the cups, as Sara got the tea cookies out and moved into the bright and spacious great room. When Lilli came into the room with the tray they took their comfortable positions on the sofa and the chair.

Once the tea was poured and steeping, Sara stared into the cup, hoping for the answers to come up from the steam. She had made a promise when she first looked at the image of her daughter from the sonogram machine; regardless of the pain, she would always answer her children's questions honestly. It was a promise that was never easy, but she felt the rewards far outweighed the pain. She only hoped that continued to be the case.

As though Lilli could sense her mother's somber mood, without looking up, she quietly asked, "Was it that bad?"

"One of the most horrible things a woman can endure." After watching Stephanie go through the pain of losing several children to miscarriage, she was infinitely grateful to have never born that burden. "You know there's a pretty big gap between Danny and Bethie?"

Lilli shrugged and answered, "Well, yeah… I just figured she was one of those happy little accidents."

"Understatement of the century, kiddo." She stirred the tea a little, preparing herself for the final word. "No, they never really stopped trying after Danny, but ah… Steph had some…miscarriages."

Sara heard the air leave her daughter's lungs in a rush. She knew that the twins had been aware of the miscarriages, but it was obvious from her daughter's reaction that Mike never felt comfortable sharing that information, even with his best friend. "But…" She watched as her daughter struggled with the new knowledge. "Do the boys know?"

"The twins…and I think Jimmy does, but I don't think Danny ever knew." She can see the hurt in her daughter's eyes as she learned that her best friend had suffered alone.

"Why didn't anyone tell us?" Sara knew that Lilli was cycling through the stages of grief at her normally accelerated rate, and anger had already been achieved.

"Lilli, it wasn't important for the children to know. The only reason the twins found out was because Mike was there when I had to take her to the hospital the last time, and he wouldn't leave her side until she came home. He and Paddy stayed home from school for a week to help take care of her and the boys." She watched as Lilli searched her memories for that time, and while she waited, Sara went on, "Thomas made the twins promise to keep it from the boys, because he wanted to protect them, and I guess they felt that carried over to you and Max, too."

"We were ten… I was in middle school, so I didn't see the twins at school anymore. I never knew they were staying home, or I would have figured something out." Sara nodded her head, knowing that figuring things out was what gave her daughter comfort, much like her father, so she let the analysis continue. "I thought we might stop being best friends because they got kind of distant after I changed schools. I never imagined it could be anything else."

"You were only ten, Lilli… The world is pretty small when you're that age, so there was no reason for you think anything differently. And we tried to make sure that the rest of you children weren't touched by that darkness." Sara offered her comfort to the young woman as she dealt with the new truth in her life.

"But why didn't Mikey tell me? I thought we shared everything. And Steph has never lied to me before-"

"And she still hasn't, honey. She simply doesn't talk about the miscarriages unless someone asks." Sara leaned forward and put a hand on her daughter's knee to drive home her point. "She never tried to hide the truth, she just didn't offer it unbidden. And she's always called Bethie her miracle child."

Lilli chuffed at her mother's final words and said, "I guess I always figured it was just because she'd finally gotten a girl."

"No… That's why _I_ call her a miracle child." Sara's attempt at levity was successful as her daughter let a short laugh escape. "It was about time she got to know it was to have a doppelganger running around."

The two women continued talking, learning the details of that dark time in the family's life, and sharing their memories and concerns. It was a familiar scene for both of them. One of the greatest gifts she had ever received as a result of her marriage was the relationship she had developed with her daughter. While she was close with both of her children, Sara was eternally grateful for the intimacy she was able to share with Lilli.

When the last of the water was poured into their cups, Lilli got up with the tray and took it into the kitchen. From the counter Sara heard her call out, "Hey, Mom… What did you do with that page you were working on?"

"The folder inside my folio on the counter."

When her daughter reappeared, she carried the folio with her. "Here… I don't want to disturb your system." Lilli handed the leather folio to her mother and then sat down beside her on the couch.

Sara withdrew the folder and pulled the scrapbook page out of it. "Here it is." As her daughter took the page, Sara placed the folio on the coffee table.

"This is really awesome, Mom. It's totally different from the pages that Steph is doing, and the ones that Mikey did, but it's just perfect for Max." Lilli pointed at the picture of the small boy on the shoulders of a man, "And I love that picture of Daddy taking him to his first ball game."

"Yeah… I still have to give your father grief about that." Sara smirked at her inside joke.

"How come?" Lilli was confused about her mother's reasoning.

"Well, because he would spend every vacation talking about how much time you guys spent with me surfing at the beach, and you didn't want to play with him in the estuaries. But, he forgets about all the time you spent with him for the baseball, and softball, and soccer, and hockey, and golf."

Lilli laughed harder with each sport her mother listed off. "Yeah, well, that's because Daddy had to share those with you…" She thought about it a moment and then changed her mind, "Okay, maybe not the golf, but still… With surfing it was just us. You and me even took special trips just to go surfing, Mom."

"Ahem… Wrigley Field? Dodger Stadium? Pebble Beach? Do any of these trips ring a bell?" Sara was quick to point out the fallacy in that argument.

"Okay… You might have a point." They both laughed at her concession.

As they continued to relive the moment represented on the page Lilli began to yawn. It was one of those yawns that started down in her toes and took over her entire body.

Sara immediately questioned her daughter, "Are you working tonight?"

"Um, yeah… Why?"

Sara shook her head and removed the page from Lilli's hands. "Take your suitcase and go crash out upstairs. You need to get some rest, and by the time you get home, and get sleepy again, it'll be time to get up and drive in to work." Lilli nodded to agree with her mother when Sara concluded, "And then you can see your father before heading to work. I know he's missed you."

"I already saw Daddy…" Lilli scrambled to her feet and said, "He picked me up from McCarran."

"You didn't?"

"What?" Lilli turned in confusion. "He called me this morning to ask about my flight, and said he'd swing by to pick me up, since he had to go to the lab anyway."

"You had your father driving all over town?!"

"No! Laney was driving." Lilli immediately assuaged her mother's fears. "They went to check out some new piece of equipment Neeley got in at the lab. They were up to their eyebrows in technical specs when I left them to get my car."

Shaking her head, Sara smirked in disgust. "I'm glad he's supposed to be cutting back his hours, taking it easy. The man is incorrigible."

Lilli leaned down and kissed her mother's forehead. "Daddy's like a shark… He's gotta keep moving to stay alive. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if he didn't have his experiments, and his toys."

"Sadly, I think you're right." Sara slowly rose to her feet and collected the cups. "I'm convinced there's something he's waiting for before he thinks he slow down."

"Got any idea what?"

Sara shrugged and offered, "A couple things… I think he'd be happy if Mike came back to take over his work. He's already taken over the fellowship at the Jeffersonian."

"Yeah… Because me and Max followed in different footsteps, huh?" They both laughed at her conclusion. As he mother wandered off to the kitchen, Lilli asked again, "What else do you think he's waiting for?"

Sara laughed as she remarked, "That one could keep him going forever."

"What's that?"

Without missing a beat, Sara nonchalantly answered, "To dance with you at your wedding."

Sara was fairly certain that she heard her daughter's heart skip a beat the moment she knew she was busted.

* * *

_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	8. Part 8: Unlikely Alliances

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of looks into the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Just for the record... There's another one already being written. I hope this meets with your approval.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

_**Part 8 – Unlikely Alliances **_

The room reminded Michael of what a giant Roman chamber must have been like. The impossible high marble walls, the detailed ceiling, the columns interspersed throughout, it all served to make him feel incredibly small. The desert had the same effect on him, but at least on the ground floor of the National Museum of Natural History, he didn't have to worry about scorpions, and he could get a really great Caesar Chicken Wrap in the Atrium Café.

When he realized his work at the Jeffersonian would be done before lunch, he followed his normal routine and called R.J. to meet him for lunch at the Atrium. His job whenever he was in town was to force the workaholic to take a break at least once a week. This was the other reason he always had her meet him at the Atrium Café.

As she rolled over to the table he had selected, he knew that his timing was impeccable, as always. "I am so glad you called today. I was about two irate phone calls away from going postal this morning."

He laughed at her exclamation as she locked down the scooter and looked around the spacious room. "I do what I can." Standing up, he asked, "What would you like today?"

Releasing a deep sigh, R.J. turned and asked, "Cobb salad?"

"Coming right up." He walked over to put their orders in and chuckled at her appearance.

R.J. was always one to make an entrance, but as he watched the other café patrons stare off in her direction, he wondered if it wasn't done intentionally. It was almost as though she knew people would be inclined to watch her, and she was just giving them a legitimate excuse to do so.

Upon returning to the table, he noticed that she was checking her cell phone. As he walked past her, he laid a soft hand on her shoulder and whispered, "That's the other reason we come here."

She looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "Excuse me?"

He pointed at the marble cavern in which they sat and said, "No cell signals could ever hope to penetrate those walls. You're completely isolated from all the needy agencies."

"You are such a stinker!" She shook her head as he laughed. "This is some kind of plot between you and Nick, isn't it?"

"I'll never tell." Michael winked at her suspicious glare, and it instantly morphed into a full on laugh. "Besides… Just be glad Jack's hog-tying and burying you in the woods plan was rejected."

"I need to make sure Angela is okay… He's had a long standing fascination with that plan." Michael nearly choked on his water with her comment. "What? TMI?"

Wiping the water from his face he said, "Something like that… I do have to work with the man."

Shrugging, she snidely said, "Yeah, that's not my problem, now is it."

Before anymore could be said, the waitress brought their food over and interrupted the cut session. They both dug into their food and made quite a dent before anything else was said.

R.J. was the first to break the silence. "Oh hey… Are you sending anything to your mother this week?"

Michael wiped his mouth and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, she wanted some pictures from me for that scrapbook thing she's doing, and all of our wedding stuff was just prints. I just figured if you were sending anything her way I'd slip these into the package." R.J. opened her case and pulled out a folder to hand to him.

As he opened the folder, Michael was instantly captivated by the images. "Oh wow! I don't think I've ever seen these." He began to flip through the pictures. It was obvious they had been taken in the desert, but the church was simply amazing. "Where is this?"

"Sedona… Not far from my family's place there." R.J. brought her glasses up from the chain around her neck and placed them on her face to better see the pictures. "And that is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. They don't actually do weddings there anymore, and haven't for a long time, but my mother used to make all of the pottery for the Diocese, and my Uncle kept the grounds at Saint John Vianney, so the Bishop gave us a special grace for our wedding."

Michael shook his head at the beauty of the place. "Ya know… I grew up in Vegas, and I've traveled all over the place, but I don't think I've really taken the time to appreciate the desert. It's just always been there." He turned the picture of the church's exterior to R.J. and said, "But stuff like this really reminds me how beautiful it can be."

"Yeah… In a lot of ways, I was the same way. It wasn't until I left Sedona that I ever thought about how beautiful it was. A few years of staring at the suburban sprawl in college was enough to fix that one." A comfortable laughter followed her analysis.

Michael often found it difficult to reconcile the woman he knew to the one he'd often heard described and reviled within Washington, D.C. circles. He just never saw the vicious, demanding bitch that everyone said she was, so he guessed that those other people just never got to see the real person behind the job.

The only thing he knew was that if you didn't have anything nice to say about someone, then sitting next to R.J. was the place to be. She was most definitely the undisputed cut-down queen in his estimation. His favorite memory of her involved a little rant about a public official speaking at a seminar they attended together. Without looking up from her reading material, she spoke at a volume meant only for him and let him know exactly how she felt about the official in question. "Backstabbing, mealy mouthed, pansy assed, conniving little toad, not worth the oxygen it would take to fill a thimble's worth of the horseshit he's dishing out." It was at that moment that their friendship truly began.

He supposed that most people would have found their relationship odd. Michael was, after all, one of those constant ray of sunshine kind of people, but there was a dark side to his good humor, and no one knew it better than R.J. They would sit in the corner of any major family event cracking evil jokes about everyone that dared walk within their line of sight, just so long as Nick wasn't within ear shot.

She interrupted his thoughts with another question, "I haven't had a chance to ask you yet, so how'd everything go with Lilli when she was in town last week?"

Quickly changing gears, Michael nodded his head and relayed the particulars. "Pretty good actually. She and Geoffrey had some kind of discussion right off the bat and got things squared away. And then I had a Come to Jesus with her about the whole thing and finally figured out what the hell crawled up her ass."

Michael gave her a knowing glance that he was fairly certain she picked up on right away, and it was confirmed when she offered, "Somehow… I think you've gotten your anatomy wrong on that one." The moment her eyebrow rose along her forehead, he was unable to contain the amusement, and they both burst out laughing with the joke.

R.J. had such a wicked wit, and seemed to delight in finding just the right buttons to push sometimes. Nick was never one to pass up a good chance to razz his mother or Aunt Sara, but he never had the black streak that she did

It never failed to amaze him that those two ever got together. They just seemed like such opposite personalities, but he figured that must have been part of it. After much analysis, Michael decided that they actually complimented each other. Where one slacked, the other took it up. The greatest example of that was the way they seemed to approach anything new; R.J. was always ready for another adventure, while Nick had to thoroughly investigate everything. What this meant was that sometimes R.J. leapt without looking and found trouble, or Nick would drag his feet for so long they'd miss out. But together, she gave him the will to jump in, and he made her think a little before finding herself stuck.

The other thing that seemed to work for them was the fact that Nick was the peacekeeper, and R.J. was the anger. He noticed sometimes that Nick would hold things back, in an attempt to just keep the peace, but R.J. would give him leave to unleash that anger when he needed to. At the same time, R.J. needed to be reminded that not every problem required righteous indignation, and that occasionally you just needed to let it go. They tempered each other so well that it was often hard to think of them as separate entities.

Michael smiled as he realized that perfect pairings seemed to be the hallmark of their strange little family. His smile did not go unnoticed. "What's that look for?"

"Pardon?" He hoped to avoid giving voice to analysis by playing dumb.

"Don't even… You look like a python with a juicy pigmy goat to squeeze. Spill it." R.J. never let him get away with that one.

He shrugged as he gave in and said, "It's nothing really, I was just thinking that this weird family of ours is pretty damn good at finding suitable matches."

"You think so, huh?"

"Well, yeah… I mean, there hasn't been a divorce since before any of us kids were even born." When he saw her acknowledge the truth of his words, he went in for the kill. "And you must be doing something right, because most of you old geezers are still kicking around."

"You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?" R.J. fixed him with a pointed glare.

"It would go completely against his nature if he did." Nick suddenly appeared behind her and bent down to kiss her cheek before pulling up a seat beside them.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Her shock was evident, but Michael also recognized the same old sparkle in her eyes the moment she saw her husband of twenty six years.

"Well, a fine hello to you, too." He winked at the rush of red that filled her cheeks, and then took pity on her, "I decided to roll the dice. Your secretary said you had a last minute lunch date, and I just figured that since the bug boy was in town, you'd meetin' with him at your favorite spot."

"Man, it just doesn't pay being married to G-Man, does it?" Michael took great delight in teasing the couple.

"It has its moments." Watching as R.J. laid her right hand along Nick's leg before he took it in his and squeezed, Michael comforted himself in the knowledge that not all happy endings involved castles and children.

* * *

_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	9. Part 9: Of Beginnings & Truths

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of looks into the continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline.The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Just for the record... There's another one already being written. I hope this meets with your approval.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

**_Part 9 – Of Beginnings & Truth_**

Walking through the house, it was odd for him to find not even a hint of activity. His entire life, there was not a single day he could recall that there was not something going on in that house. It felt strange, and he could not put a finger on why.

He made his way to the kitchen and pulled out the juice from the refrigerator. Though there was no one to watch him, he took a glass from the dishwasher and poured the juice. In his experience, only when he was sure no one was around would be the time he got caught drinking out of the container. He was convinced his parents had hidden cameras all around the house.

With a bagel firmly lodged in the toaster, he went in search of the cream cheese, somewhere in the vastness of their enormous fridge. He located it just as the toaster popped. Before he had a chance to finish making his breakfast, there was finally another sign of life in the house, and it came from sound out in the solarium.

Quickly slapping the cream cheese onto the bagel, he scooped up his breakfast and made his way out there.

When he cleared the damper on the doorway, he was instantly transported to a garden he only ever heard about; his grandmother's. The moisture in the cooled air instantly filled his nostrils, along with the delicate scent of sweet peas. And seated at the table was the source of life for the entire house.

"Hey, Mom…what're you doing home?" Daniel announced his presence to his mother.

"I could say the same to you." She gave him an appraising look and asked, "Aren't you scheduled for an ER rotation today?"

As he took the seat opposite her at the table, Daniel shrugged. "Nah… I finally got busted for my hours, so I'm off ER rotation until next week."

"I hope it wasn't your father." Her concerned stare made him laugh.

"Nope… It was Uncle Robert, actually. Pulled my hours to see if I could scrub in on a femur fracture graft, and went a little ballistic." Daniel chuckled as he remembered his uncle coming unglued on the chief resident in the ER. "Remind me not to piss off Uncle Robert anytime soon, will ya?"

"That's a good plan all the time." He laughed at his mother's conclusion.

As she went back to work, Daniel peered over her shoulder to get a better look at what it was that had her attention. He saw the old pictures and all of the supplies for affixing them to the pages, which told him exactly what she was up to. "How many more of those do you have, Momma?"

She released a heaving sigh and begrudgingly admitted, "Far more than I care to think about this late in the game."

"That bad?" He wiped off his hands on his pants and started leafing through the photographs.

"I'm afraid so. And your brother just sent me his two pages, plus he has some other page he's going to bring with him when he gets here for the party. I swear that boy is trying to make my hair gray." Daniel always found his mother's exasperation funny, and this was no exception.

"Oh come on, Mom. It can't be that bad. It's looks to me like you have a lot of pages already." He plopped the last bite of his bagel in his mouth and stood up to move around the table. "And you've just found yourself another pair of hands until Sunday night."

"Thank you, Danny, but this isn't exactly your forte."

"Hey, I am qualified to perform a bowel resection, so I think I can handle cutting up a few pictures and do-dads for a scrapbook." He scooted in beside his mother and waited for her to give in to his offer.

When he bumped her with his hip, Stephanie laughed outright. "Okay, okay… If you're sure?"

"Absolutely… I can't be the only one not helping with this thing." Daniel smiled down at his mother before delivering his punchline, "Besides, if I help, then I don't have to get Uncle Gil another tie he won't ever wear."

"Good point… And we wouldn't want that, for sure." She gingerly picked up the page she had been working on and slid it across the table to Daniel. "Okay, use those sticky things to attach all of that to the page, just like I have it laid out."

"Sweet… I think I can handle that one." He quickly returned to the other side of the table and got ready to work.

However, when he looked down at the page, he was dumbstruck by what he found. All over the page was a young girl and woman that he was hard pressed to recognize. Once he finally got over the shock, he looked up and asked his mother, "Is this really Aunt Sara?"

She instantly laughed at his question. "Of course it is! Why would you ask a question like that?"

Daniel shrugged and tried to explain his initial reaction, "Well, she just… I don't know, some of these, they just don't look like her."

"Well, we all have to start from somewhere, kiddo. And we all end up aging at some point."

"No, it's not that…" He interrupted his mother and showed her a picture of a very young Sara, her hair short, and her fresh adult teeth showing through. "That's not my Aunt Sara. She's not even smiling. Not really. And this one…" He brought up a picture of a teenage Sara, her hair bigger than anything in nature and showed it to his mother. "She doesn't even look like she's really there in this one. And there's not even a hint of smile on her face."

"Danny… You know that not everyone got to grow up the way you kids have, and your Aunt Sara was not quite as lucky as we were." She took the large cutout picture of Sara from the center and showed it to her son, "This is how she looked when we met. She was always thinking, and this is how I like to remember her from that time." Stephanie handed it to him and continued, "But that wasn't how she always looked. In fact, she was pretty sad back then. Thankfully, that all changed when she and your Uncle Gil finally got together."

Daniel nodded, though he still wasn't satisfied with the answer. "So, what about these?" He showed her the two from the top corner, where Sara appeared to be genuinely smiling. In one she wore a t-shirt and looked quite a bit younger than the one where she looked like she was leaning up against a wall.

"I actually had to double check the dates on those." His mother gave him that knowing smile he had always found comfort in. "The t-shirt one is from before she came to Las Vegas. I think she may have even still been in grad school."

"But that's way before they got together, so why is she smiling like that?"

"That's easy… It's from when they met. Your Uncle Gil took that picture when he was showing her around the San Francisco crime lab." She smiled again and sat back in her chair. Daniel could tell the memories were bubbling up in her mind.

"Man…I guess I just didn't realize they'd known each other that long." Daniel started gluing down the pictures, following the order his mother had laid out.

Stephanie curiously asked, "Haven't I told you this story before?"

Daniel shook his head and answered, "Not that I remember. I've heard how you and Aunt Cath got them together, but not how they met."

"Me either." Another voice joined them from the doorway.

"I thought you were covering for me this morning?" Stephanie suspiciously asked her young charge.

"I was, but David came in and told me to get lost. So, I thought I'd swing by to see if you needed any help." Lilli crossed the room and pulled up a chair at the table. "But I'd much rather listen to story hour."

"Okay then… Let me just think for a second."

Before Stephanie could start again, her son interjected with, "That could take a while… Who else needs a drink?"

With his drink orders in place, Daniel slipped out to retrieve the beverages. As soon as he was out of the room Lilli leaned over to get a good look at the pictures Stephanie was working on.

"Oh wow! Is that really you and Mom…BOTH pregnant?!" Lilli could not contain her shock. In all her life she had never seen a picture of her mother pregnant. It had long been one of the family jokes that her mother became a ninja when she was pregnant. "So, how is it that you have this picture and I've never seen it?"

"Easy… Your mother is going to have me killed when she sees them in this book." They both laughed at the joke. "Seriously, if it wasn't for this book being for your father, she'd have my hide nailed to the shed for certain."

"Wait, there's more than one?" She looked over the page and found the other culprit. In that picture her mother appeared physically larger than she ever imagined the woman could be. Lilli had always thought of her mother as larger than life, but seeing that picture was the first time she ever saw it in full clarity. "Oh…My…God! She's HUGE!"

"Yeah, it's been nice to know you… Comments like that could seal my fate, kid." Stephanie removed the picture from the page and looked at it closely again. "And the worst part…she was barely seven months when I took this one."

"Are you serious?! Jesus! How big did she get?" Lilli was entirely beside herself with that information.

"Well, with you it wasn't so bad, but this was when she was pregnant with Max. And let's just say your mother wasn't so much a ninja during that time, as much as she possessed a death ray glare that NO ONE dared to violate." She returned the picture to the page and sat back in her chair.

"Then how'd you get that one?"

Stephanie chuckled as Danny returned to the room with their drinks. "Because the person who took the picture was sneaky and very lucky."

"Uh-oh… I think I know this one. Is this about that picture of Aunt Sara when she was preggers?" Daniel handed his mother a bottle of root beer as he asked his question.

"Hey! How do you know about this picture and I don't?!" Lilli indignantly took the glass of milk from Daniel's grasp.

Laughing as he finally took his seat, Daniel sat back and waited the perfect amount of time to irritate his cousin.

"Don't even try that Cheshire Cat thing with me Daniel Robert O'Halleran. Spill it."

"For somebody so damned smart, I can't believe you don't know." Daniel laughed again, and gave his mother a playful wink. When he saw that Lilli was about to get out of her chair he finally held up his hands in surrender. "Don't get your panties in a twist…especially since you're the wisenheimer who took the damn thing."

"WHAT?!"

Lilli instantly looked to Stephanie for corroboration. "Yeah, you must have been digging in my purse when we went out to this restaurant with Nick and R.J. one night. You somehow managed to completely change all of the settings on my camera, and then took pictures of your knees, Mikey's elbow, your Dad's ear and that one of your Mom on the black and white setting. I got the camera away from you when I saw it in your hands and then hid it away before your mother could see anything." Stephanie's face took on such a serene expression when she would recall the events of her children's lives, and this was no exception. "Thomas and I must have laughed about those pictures that night for hours. He even woke up still chuckling in the morning."

"Oh wow…" Lilli found herself at a loss for words, which was a fairly uncommon occurrence for the young woman. She stared at the picture for a long while before she was finally able to ask another question, "But how does Danny know about this and I don't?"

"Because I was Jimmy's and Max's shadow, and they were going through old pictures with Momma one day. When they got to that picture, she told them the story, but swore us all to secrecy by making us promise that if we told," Daniel looked over at his mother, who wore a devilish grin, before continuing. "She'd have us all on perma-ban from Uncle Gil's lab, and she'd make us wear t-shirts with our pet names on them to school."

Stephanie only shrugged when Lilli looked to her for confirmation. "I think you would have been adorable with a Danner-Nanners t-shirt, especially if I put that picture of you eating your first banana on it."

Daniel cringed at the very thought of it, but still laughed with the others over the whole ordeal. As they laughed, Lilli exclaimed, "I would have killed to see Max wearing a shirt with Mushy Butt on it!"

"And that's exactly why the threats worked so well. And how I've managed to survive this long with that picture in my possession." She reached out to pick up the photo again. "And why I am seriously thinking about putting it back in the box."

"No way!" Lilli and Daniel called out in unison.

The two exchanged worried looks and then Lilli took over. "Steph, you gotta leave it in. Daddy will love it, and that means Mom will, too. She'll get over the whole huge part the moment she sees those eyes get all crinkly when Daddy smiles."

Stephanie nodded her head and put the picture back. "Let's hope you're right."

Daniel went back to work gluing his page and decided a subject change was in order. "So, now that that's settled…are you gonna tell us this story, or do we have to start begging?"

When Stephanie looked up, she found two sets of over the top puppy dog eyes staring back at her. "Oh please! Like that ever worked on me."

"Hasn't stopped us from trying yet… So, hand me the glue and we'll work while you talk." Taking the glue from Stephanie, Lilli turned to Daniel and said, "The bribery always works better, but it can't hurt to keep our options open first."

"All right, ya little con artist… I'll tell you the story." Stephanie stretched out her legs as she leaned back in her seat again. "What story am I supposed to be telling again?"

Daniel held up the picture in question, showing Sara in a t-shirt at some lab. "Oh yeah… When they met." A pensive expression fell over her face. "Are you sure I've never told you guys this one?"

"Nope… All Mom and Dad ever said was that they met at a conference or a seminar or something. And that it took them way too many years to figure it all out before they got together." Lilli's rapid fire summary of a very complicated relationship was enough to make Stephanie shake her head.

"I wish it was that easy… No, your folks definitely did things the hard way. In fact, I'd be inclined to say that they got it totally backwards." Stephanie chuckled as the memories started coming together.

"Backwards? How do you do it backwards?" Daniel was completely confused by his mother's analysis.

"Mutual respect, attraction, falling head over heels, walking away, pen pals, co-workers, more distance, dating other people, even more distance, tolerance, comfort, sharing, respect, walking away, ever after…. Yeah, I'd call that backwards, at best. At worst, two of the most socially inept human beings on the face of the planet finally removing their heads from their collective asses in order to spend the rest of their lives together and make a couple of halfway decent mongrel children." Daniel was beside himself with laughter by the time his mother was done with her little tear. He loved it when his mother went off, and even more when it was someone in their twisted little family.

"Ooookay… You're gonna have to explain the rest of that one to me some day." Lilli shook her head with confusion. "But for now… How'd they meet?"

"Fair enough." Stephanie settled in to start her story. "Your Dad was in town for one of his infamous seminars. This time it was at Berkeley…"

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

His seminars were always the highlight of any visit with him. He would just get so excited when he could share with others something that he loved so much. While the entomological ones were the best, the forensic ones were always a crowd pleaser. The big draw was probably the chance to see dead bodies from crime scenes, but it also came from his enthusiasm when presenting the information.

I had probably seen the same forensic entomology lecture a hundred times, and even recognized a few of the pictures from cases I'd read with him before. The lecture rarely changed, but somehow I always managed to pick something new out of it every time. When he presented it at Berkeley that time, I ended up learning a lot more than forensics.

I'd gotten there a little late, because I had to re-route my bike path around some construction in the park. Fortunately, no one likes to sit up front at those seminars, so I didn't have to search for a seat when I got there. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see the lecture hall nearly filled. He always did better with a full house, because he was less self conscious about his work.

At first I was concerned about him, because he didn't seem to notice that I'd arrived, but then he looked my way and smiled. He told me once that having me at his seminars was always a boost for his confidence, so I made sure to never miss one, if I could help it.

The lecture was fantastic, as usual, but it felt like he was distracted through the whole thing. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see where his eyes kept drifting. During the lunch break I had to run down to the administration building to take care of some paperwork, so I didn't get a chance to ask him what was up. It just meant that I'd have to ask him about it when we went out to dinner that night.

His first night in the city, we always went to dinner for Chinese. There was this fantastic little place in the heart of Chinatown, whose owners thought that the moon and sun rose and set with his whims. It was just as important for him to visit with them, as it was to see me. But by the time we got to the restaurant, I had completely forgotten to ask him what he was so distracted about during the lecture that day.

Second day of the lecture was always smaller, because all the people who came just to see the dead bodies had gotten their fill, and they weren't really interested in listening to him talk about regression timelines and collection techniques. Personally, I thought it was the best part of the lecture portion in his seminars.

One of the other benefits of the second day was that I usually had the entire first and second rows to myself. Well, that was the one thing different that time around, because there was this woman in the front row, sitting smack dab in the center of the room. It was especially odd, because I was usually the only person willing to engage him like that.

I should mention, I was no longer allowed to sit in the middle, because of the time I sat there making faces at him through the entire lecture trying to get him to laugh. Needless to say, from that point on, he would only look at me during specific intervals of the lecture. However, this time was different, because he didn't even look over at me during those intervals.

Instead, he kept looking at the woman in the center of the front row, almost as though she was the only person in the room. That was when I realized I'd gotten my answer for the unasked question the day before.

Strictly on appearances, she looked to be in her twenties, and probably not any older than twenty-two or twenty three, which meant she was most likely a grad student. She had this kind of untamed curly brown hair. It wasn't messy, but it was definitely wild, and it was exactly something he would like. She was sitting down, so I couldn't really see how tall she was, but judging from those legs hanging out of the lecture hall seat, I knew she'd be tall enough. Of course, those legs were probably the big draw for him. He was always a sucker for long legs.

During the lunch break, I decided to slip out and head across campus to work in the chem lab. It was obvious to me that Uncle Gil was doing just fine in his seminar without me, and I was more concerned about an experiment that I'd been struggling with. On top of that, I was pretty sure he wasn't even going to notice my absence after the break, simply from the way he couldn't seem to pull himself away from the leggy brunette with the great questions.

I have no idea what happened that afternoon, but when I called my mother from the chem lab, she said we'd be having dinner on our own. It would appear that Uncle Gil had some plans with, as she put it, "a colleague." And no one knew better than me what that was a codeword for, Uncle Gil had a date.

The next day, my curiosity about this "colleague" won out over my desire to discuss the physical properties of inertia, so I made my way back the lecture hall again. It was demonstration day, and that usually meant everyone moved down in the hall to be able to see all the good stuff. It also meant that I could sit in the back and observe the real action.

Took me all of about ten minutes to know exactly who the object of his interest was, even though I still couldn't see her very clearly. There were a couple of tall men between me and her, so all I could make out was her hair, but I knew it was her by the way Uncle Gil kept stealing looks in her direction. After about twenty minutes of seeing those looks, I decided it was time for me to split.

After I stopped off at the library to pick up a couple books I'd been waiting on, I went for a workout, and then rode my bike all the way to my mother's campus to meet her for lunch. When she asked me why I wasn't having lunch with Uncle Gil, I just smiled and told her that I was pretty sure he wouldn't be eating alone.

When he called to tell her that he had other plans for dinner, we weren't the least bit surprised.

With the seminar over, I knew there was still two whole days before Uncle Gil went back to Vegas. I was more than a little disappointed to find him absent from the breakfast table that morning, so I just went to class. And when my father told me he had arranged for Uncle Gil to show some student around the crime lab, I skipped dinner and went up to study for a test.

No one more than me wanted Uncle Gil to be happy, but I was still a little hurt by how easy it seemed to be for him to bail on our time together. And I probably would've continued to think that way if it wasn't for my father.

My father asked me if I remembered how Uncle Gil was when he had found that rare species of butterfly on one of our Redwoods trips. And I told him that he spent the next six weeks trying to track down their source, every free moment was in the woods crawling around after these butterflies, and how I hardly ever saw him. That was when it hit me, and my father started laughing at me.

Pop just shook his head and told me one of those simple truths, "Doesn't matter how many butterflies he goes chasing after, he's always going to end up right back here, telling you all about it."

As usual, Pop was right, only this time I wish he hadn't been. Uncle Gil was sitting at the breakfast table when I came down the next morning, but it wasn't the same guy I'd seen in the lecture hall. And I spent the whole day feeling guilty about keeping him away from that "colleague."

I tried talking to him through lunch, but he would just smile and nod a lot, and I knew there was someplace else he'd rather be. I even went so far as to tell him that I had some homework I needed to do, and if he had something better to do I'd understand. But he just smiled and told me that he was where he wanted to be.

After he went back to Vegas, I sat down with Mom and told her that I just didn't understand men. Mom laughed, and asked me what inspired my frustration that time. So, I told her all about what I had seen and everything that happened on Uncle Gil's last day.

Momma just smiled and told me that Uncle Gil rarely belonged lumped into the same category as most men, but that in this particular case, I might have a point. When I asked her to explain, she would only say that even Uncle Gil had to fight the green-eyed monster sometimes, and he wasn't used to being jealous of anyone fifteen years his junior.

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

"What the hell was Daddy jealous about?" Lilli had been slient through the entire story, but that nugget was just too much for her.

Stephanie shrugged noncommittally, "I have no idea… I didn't even find out that your Mom was that girl until their wedding reception."

"Wow! That's just incredible." Lilli held her head up with her hands, her elbows resting on the table.

Putting the rest of the pictures and pages back into the boxes, Daniel winked at his mother as he said, "Yeah, Mom. That's gotta be one of your best bedtime stories ever."

Lilli looked up at Stephanie and then back to Daniel, trying to decide if they were playing a prank on her. "If that's just a tall tale, I am sooooo gonna throw a fit."

"How is that different from any other day?" Sara walked into the solarium and stood behind Stephanie. "But why are you throwing a fit this time?"

"I was just telling them the story of the first time you and Uncle Gil met." Stephanie bent her neck back to look up at Sara with a wide grin on her face.

"Oh God… You didn't?" When Stephanie only smiled more broadly, she knew that it was true. "Remind me to have your mouth sewn shut one of these days."

Sara rolled her eyes and looked around the table to see the boxes safely closed and not a single page in sight. "Have you gotten started yet?"

"Don't even try to change the subject now, Mom… Why was Daddy jealous when he left San Francisco?"

Sara glared at Stephanie, realizing that once again she was responsible for leaving her fumbling for an explanation after the fact. "Well… I can't say for sure, because only he can confirm that one, but…"

"But what?" Stephanie was not about to let her off the hook and it earned her another steely glare.

"But… He might have gotten the _impression_ that I was flirting with someone at the lab when he had Steph's father give me that tour." Sara actually blushed slightly at her revelation.

"Well, that's just silly." Lilli took the bottles and the glass from the table as she got up.

"Thank you." Sara was infinitely proud that her daughter saw things her way. Even after fourty years, Gil still gave her a hard time for that encounter.

"Yeah, everyone knows your flirting doesn't mean anything… You do it all the time."

It became quite obvious to Sara that Stephanie was indeed rubbing off on her daughter as she nonchalantly went into the kitchen after leaving her poor mother completely speechless.

* * *

_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	10. Part 10: You've Got a Friend

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")  
_**A/N:**_ I'm flying solo on this one now, because the beta most familiar with this story is currently beating her head against the brick walls of higher education. And besides, who has time to ferret through another 12 page mammoth of mine all the time. ;)  
_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

The sound of an astoundingly angry voice filled every nook and cranny of the house. "I don't give a good God damned what he thought he was doing. I find out he's been back in that morgue haranguing any of my medical examiners and I will personally call down the heavens on your office… The state inspector general will be so far up your ass you're gonna have a sore throat before it's all over."

Instead of winding down, the one-sided conversation grew more heated. "I can't be anymore clear, Sheriff. If you, or the Undersheriff, needs an autopsy report, you will wait just like everyone else. You will not go in and try to intimidate one of my examiners with scare tactics. I am not above having you and all of your people barred from the morgue indefinitely… I most certainly do have that authority, and if you doubt me, take it up with the county coroner and the Nevada State Forensic Examiner's Office… I don't work for you, or any of your cronies, so don't even try your bullshit tactics with me, Evans… Look it up, moron. I work with the county coroner and for the state of Nevada, for exactly this reason. Undue political influence is NOT the way we do business in the forensic community… Fine! Next time one of your people shows up, I'll just have them hauled off to the state lockup… Oh, yes I would, and you can bank on that one."

The next sound was that of the receiver slamming into the base. "Son of a Bitch!"

"I think you just filled up the swear jar with that call, Mom." Michael's sudden appearance and voice forced his mother to spin on her heel and nearly jump out of her skin.

"Where the hell did YOU come from?!" Clutching at her chest and obviously out of breath from the tirade, as well as the shock, Stephanie gasped at her son.

"Well, a fine hello to you, too." Michael smiled brightly at his mother as she quickly recovered from the surprise.

She reached out to hug him around the neck and said, "Sorry about that… I just wasn't expecting you for at least another week. What's up?"

Returning his mother's embrace, Michael chuckled at her question. "Geoffrey had an assignment at Nellis and it's a minimum three week deal. And I decided that it was silly for me to sit at home in an empty condo in D.C. while he was in Vegas. So, I packed up my duffle and all my notes and figured I could come here and work on my dissertation. That's okay, right?"

Stephanie swatted her son's chest as she pulled away. "Of course it is! Why would you say that?"

"I mean, you were pretty hot when I came in. I wouldn't want to be in the way or anything. I know you and Aunt Sara have tons left to do for the party and if you need the spac-"

"Say one more word and I will turn you over my knee. You are always welcome here, Michael. Regardless of how many asshatted politicians I have to deal with in the process, I will always have time for you." Stephanie gave her son the same glare that she had been using since before he was born to get her point across.

His laughter immediately let her know that he understood. "Okay, Mom. No arguments from me. Now, you want me in my old room, or should I stow my gear somewhere else?"

"Your room is just fine, as long there's enough space for the both of you?"

"Ah, Geoffrey will be stuck at the base most of the time. But we might get him on weekends." Shaking her head at the playful expression on her son's face, Stephanie found his boyish sense of humor very endearing; it reminded her of his father.

"I did promise the guest suite to Greg and his clan for the big event. But I think Nick and R.J. are staying with Neeley and Laney. Duncan is staying with your Aunt Cath to keep her company. Niko is going to take over Jimmy's room with Tally and the baby." He listened with delighted amusement as his mother rattled off the planning logistics of the single biggest event in family history. "Mari, Kari, Lily and Bethie will end up doing the slumber party thing before it's all over with, I'm sure. And we're still waiting to find out what Max and Amanda are doing."

"They're coming though, right?" Michael was instantly panicked that his Uncle Gil's only son was going to miss the party.

"Oh! Yeah, they're coming, but they have to wait until the last minute because of some thing going on at the lab, and then Amanda has something else going on, but I have no idea what it is. Ask Jimmy, I'm sure he knows." His mother was obviously in crisis mode, because everything came out in a flurry, but she still had it all under control. Michael always marveled at the way she seemed to deal with the chaos, no matter what life threw at her.

"Okay then… Let me stow this crap and I'll be down to help with whatever." Michael immediately kissed his mother's cheek and took off at a trot for the stairs. Calling over his shoulder, he asked, "Because I know something's up if you stayed home from work in the middle of the week."

Stephanie laughed at the deductive reasoning of her eldest child. She was about to put away her briefcase when the phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, she rolled her eyes and prepared to once again do battle with the Sheriff.

"Now what, Evans?" Doing her level best to keep her temper in control, Stephanie squeezed the bridge of her nose and picked up where she left off. "No, the charter for Clark County specifically states that the medical examiner's office would remain under the control of the state of Nevada to prevent undue influence in the case of deaths involving unnatural causes. Specifically, those involving members of law enforcement, to provide an ethical and objective examination of the facts."

Quickly growing weary of the man's insistence that he had a right to walk into the morgue and demand a report at his leisure, Stephanie decided to shut down the conversation from going any further. "Look Sheriff, I realize you want this thing handled quickly and quietly, but until you can teach your people not to gun down unarmed civilians in the middle of the Fremont District with fifty cameras and a thousand witnesses, no autopsy report on the planet is going to give you what you need. And having your lackey go down to the morgue to harass and intimidate one of my examiners is NOT going to win you any votes. Especially when that same jackass sexually harasses that very same examiner…on camera, no less. So, please…make this a public matter, and that should be just the right amount of grease to slick up that rail they're gonna run you out on."

Michael walked back into the room just as his mother had made her point and it took everything in his power not to laugh outright. "Exactly… Now, instead of trying to out-scream me, I suggest you take this up with that over-sexed Neanderthal you call an undersheriff. Good day."

Her exasperated grunt told him that she had reached the absolute end of her patience. Shaking his head, Michael asked, "The idiot made advances on one of your ME's?"

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it." He could see the frustration boiling in her gaze when it suddenly clicked with him.

"He didn't?!"

"Oh yes, he did. While she was in the middle of an autopsy, no less. With the camera and microphone on. Got the whole thing recorded. I thought for sure Lilli was going to kill the little bastard, but she held her cool, thank goodness." There were a select few women on the planet that Michael knew, without a doubt, no one EVER wanted to be on their bad side, and his cousin Lilli was most definitely in the top five.

"Seriously? He actually made a pass at **_Lilli_**?"

"Oh, if only! This moron told her to 'get her sweet little ass into the office and fetch him that report' or he would have to-… How did he put it?" She reached into her briefcase and retrieved a folder. Turning a few pages she began again, "Or, he would, 'teach her a thing or two about keeping a real man satisfied.' Verbatim." She held the folder up and explained, "The transcript from the audio recording. Stupid son of a bitch."

Michael knew then that the man was lucky he escaped with his life, let alone his manhood intact. "Lilli must be slipping. Five years ago and that bastard would have been lying on that table next to the other corpse waiting to be vivisected."

"She's matured a lot since then." The sly wink his mother shared with him sealed the deal on their own private joke. Whenever something happened with Lilli, they would always say the same thing, and it never ceased to bring out their laughter. This was no exception.

When their giggles finally subsided, Michael once again asked, "So, why are you home in the middle of the week?"

She instantly brushed off his concern. "I'm just really behind with this stupid scrapbook thing and I'm hassling with the caterers, which I hate, so I thought I could take a few days off to get caught up." She rolled her eyes at the phone and joked, "Don't know what I was thinking."

"Well, after thirty years on the job, and barely taking any time off, I think they owe you a few quiet days at home. But if you've got morons like that running around, I can see why it's always been so hard." He put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "And that's the other reason I wanted to come out early. I thought you might like an extra pair of hands for all the party stuff. So, just give me orders and I'll be happy to slave for you until the big day."

"Mikey, thank you, but you have things of your own to worry about. You have Geoffrey and your dissertation and-"

Michael held up a hand to stop her from continuing and told her plainly, "My dissertation is two years in the making, a couple weeks is not going to make a bit of difference now. And Geoffrey is probably hip deep in motherboards and DOD encryption codes already, so do not even try to use that excuse. If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be, and you know it. So, just give me a list, and we'll do like we always do and pull this thing off by working together to make it happen."

Stephanie kissed her son's cheek and smiled. "How'd I get such a smart kid?"

"Pure luck." His playful smirk could easily have come from her own father, as the light danced in eyes the same way it always did in her brother's. And, as though he was reading her mind, he said, "Plus some pretty amazing genetics."

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

Spread out all over the rec room in the basement, Michael sorted through the memories of his childhood. Both happy and sad, the successes and the failures, all recorded in those images carefully preserved to share with the generations to come. That was where Geoffrey found him.

"Hey." Michael looked up with a broad grin spread out over his face.

"Hey, yourself. I thought you weren't gonna be able to get away?"

Not wanting to try the floor just yet, Geoffrey looked behind him for the nearest chair and settled into it as he spoke. "That's what I thought, too. But they had some drill they were running tonight, so I got booted out of the system until morning." He leaned over to get a closer look at what Michael was working on. "But I see your Mom didn't waste any time putting you to work."

"My fault, really. I asked for it." There was a bit of the devil in the smirk appearing on his face.

He quirked an eyebrow at the man on the floor. "Still procrastinating on the dissertation?"

Michael immediately shushed him. "Don't you dare say anything like that around my mother. And no, I am not avoiding it. You knew coming here early I'd want to help her and Aunt Sara with the party stuff."

"I know, but I don't want you to keep ignoring your own work, Michael. It's important."

Reluctantly, Michael nodded his head and quietly said, "I know that, and I promise, I will work on it, but right now…"

"You need to help your mother…I understand." He smiled, knowing that Michael needed that reassurance that he did indeed understand his situation. "So, do you think I can get an invite for the night?"

"No invitation needed." Michael's mother came in behind him carrying several bottles of water. "Just walk right in." She passed Geoffrey one of the bottles before handing one to Michael as she slowly sat down on the couch.

"We don't stand on formality around here." Michael beamed up at him, letting him know once again that he was home.

"Thank you, Ma'am." He squinted in mock pain, realizing too late he had slipped up.

"You get one a day… After that, it's gonna get ugly." Stephanie gave him a gentle wink and Geoffrey relaxed. "Honestly though, Geoffrey. You are always welcome here, just like the rest of my kids. Which reminds me…" She turned to her son and swatted at the back of his head. "Why didn't you give him the key?"

Michael cringed at his mother's playful attack and immediately went on the defensive. "I did! Right after you sent it to me, honest!"

All eyes focused on Geoffrey and he shrunk away from the attention. "I ah, wasn't really sure that I should, um, use it?"

"Geoffrey, I have five children, their respective spouses, their kids, my godchildren, their parents, and any number of other people parading through my house at any given moment. Why on earth would you think using a key that I specifically sent for you was off limits to use?" Having it explained like that, in no uncertain terms, made him understand his foolish apprehension.

Shrugging, because he really had no defense, he offered, "Can I plead insanity?"

Walking into the room without so much as a notice, Lilli softly slapped his back and said, "You're with Mikey… That's pretty much a given."

Upon recognizing Michael's closest friend and cousin, Geoffrey reached out and pulled her into his side for a hug. "Thanks a lot, Lady." A lot had changed since their last meeting in that house, and he was grateful to have made peace with the woman during her visit to Georgetown.

Lilli instantly returned the friendly embrace and wrapped her arm around his waist as she turned back to the others in the room. "Why is he insane this time?"

Michael smirked and then went back to sorting through pictures when he said, "He rang the bell."

Staring back at Geoffrey in disbelief, Lilli asked, "Are you crazy? The only people that ring that bell are the cops. And that's only because they're afraid of Steph."

"Stop that… The police do not ring my bell." Stephanie looked disgusted at Lilli's insinuation.

"Well, not since the twins moved out, anyway." She winked at Geoffrey to show she was only kidding.

But then Michael went on the defensive. "That only happened one time." When Lilli gave him a disapproving glare he continued. "Hey, you can't count that first one! We were only five."

"Criminal records in kindergarten?" Geoffrey decided to join in on the fun.

"It wasn't criminal. We just…sort of…tricked them into taking us home." The comical look on Michael's face was enough to send Geoffrey into a fit of laughter.

"Oh, this story I have to hear!"

"It was nothing…really." Michael tried to play down the event to his partner, but the look on his face told him there was no getting out this one. "Fine. Okay, so we were at some day camp. Tiger scouts, I think. And it was…" Michael searched for the right description. "Well, for lack of a better word…it was boring!"

"They were at a duck pond teaching the kids how to make paper sailboats and then they had a little regatta to sail them on the pond." Stephanie interjected for a moment.

"Right, boring. Greg taught us how to make sailboats when we were like three. And paper jets, and sailor hats, and swans, and frogs, and…well, you get the picture." Michael waited for Geoffrey to nod his understanding before he went on. "So, we finished our boats in like five minutes and were bored waiting around for all the other kids to still learn how to fold paper properly. We took our boats to the pond and started walking with them as they made their way across the water. Found a couple interesting looking dragonflies and an awesome cicada shell. Paddy found a water-logged tennis ball that we took turns throwing after dunking it in the water again. It made really cool patterns in the air from the water spinning off of it."

"Mom still can't believe you didn't at least try physics." Lilli shook her head.

Michael shrugged and answered her interjection. "I was always more interested in natural mechanics than quantum mechanics."

"And the only math he likes to do is counting bug populations." His mother managed to slip her own analysis into the conversation, and got the laugh.

"You are so busted." Geoffrey looked behind him again when Sara's voice joined the fray. He half expected to see a parade following behind her as she walked in.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? I took one look at Newtonian equations and headed straight for the bio lab. Bugs and slime are far less complicated." Michael immediately turned the joke back around on his Aunt Sara.

"Now you're starting to sound like Jack." She moved passed the others to take a seat on the sofa next to Stephanie, playfully nudging her to the side. "Speaking of…how's he doing now that he's retired?"

"Driving Angela completely insane." They all laughed at the notion of Jack Hodgins ever truly retiring. "She lets him go to the Jeffersonian once a week to teach and to get away from her for a little while. But the last time I was over there he had Parker and Zach elbow deep into a carburetor rebuild on the Astin. So, he's still keeping pretty busy."

"I haven't seen Zach since he started college…how's he doing?" Stephanie asked.

"Beard, long hair, plays the guitar…and re-wires billion dollar computer systems in his sleep. So, pretty much the same, just more hair." They all laughed at Michael's description of Angela & Jack's oldest son.

"That kid is so much like his Mom sometimes, it's a little scary." Sara regarded Geoffrey and said, "Angela was a little wild when we were younger, and I didn't even know her when she was really crazy. But if you thought her wildness also meant she was lazy, or stupid, you were sorely mistaken. Probably one of the smartest people in our little group in grad school at Berkeley. And the things she could do with a computer back then…absolute genius. Don't let that free spirit artistic façade fool you. She's probably out ahead of Jack when it comes to smarts."

"Yeah, I was helping her tweak the processor on a new holographic projection unit she's been working on, so you don't have to tell me how smart she is." Sara nodded and smiled, learning something new about the young man attached to her godson.

"Yeah, she's just got this thing about not letting that be what defines her. She'd rather be known as a flaky artist, than-"

"A squint?" Stephanie interjected.

"Exactly!" Sara shook her head. "Temperance always hated when Seeley used that term, but I think Angela hated it more."

Michael spoke up from his position on the floor, where his cousin had joined him. "Well, Zach says there's no way anyone'll be able to call him a squint." The look on Michael's face told everyone there was a joke coming.

Always quick on the draw, Lilli chimed in, "How could anyone tell if he was squinting, what with all of that hair?"

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

As was often the case, several cars were waiting in the driveway and out in front of the spacious Summerlin house when Dr. Thomas O'Halleran arrived home. It had been that way from the moment they moved in and he suspected it was likely to continue until his family no longer lived there. Most men would have balked at such a busy home, but Thomas was not most men. To him, fighting for space in the garage meant that he had a full house, and for a man who spent his childhood without a real home to call his own, it also meant that had one now.

His wife's family and all of their friends were always around, and their children, though grown now, always managed to find their way home. That brilliant stucco house was the center of his universe, and he was delighted to see the planets and moons still in orbit around the bright sun that held them all together.

Thomas held no illusions that he was the reason they were drawn to that center. No, he was well aware of the powerful gravitational force that shaped their universe. After all, he was the one who married her.

Carefully navigating his way into the open spot in the garage, Thomas smiled to himself. Stephanie was the light of his life, and was indeed the reigning heavenly body at the center of his universe. And after more than thirty years together, he was still amazed at the ever growing depth of his love for her.

It was far from a loud and boisterous love. It was quiet, and subtle, but always present, wrapping them up in its warmth and giving them comfort even in their darkest moments. The best way to describe their relationship came from his oldest boys when they were barely ten, sitting at the table working on a school project with their friends. One of the children asked Patrick why their parents smiled so much. Michael simply answered, "Because they're happy, stupid." And it was true; they simply made each other happy.

Walking into the house, Thomas was surprised to find so much quiet. He thought for sure the house would be practically singing with laughter, judging by the cars out front. As he went down the hall to drop his briefcase in the office, he found the reason. With the basement door slightly ajar, the sounds of their chatter leaked out into the hallway.

He quickly put the case in his office and left his suit jacket with his tie on the back of his chair. It was obvious to him this was going to be a very informal affair.

As he walked down the stairs, their amused laughter broke out, and he was surprised by a couple of the voices he recognized. Breaking through the hallway he called out, "And just what are you two doing here?"

"Hey Pop!" His eldest son Michael shouted to him from the floor. He and Lilli were surrounded by photos and folders spread out around them. It looked like Stephanie had found some more help with her scrapbooking project.

"And Geoffrey? When did you guys get in?" Thomas walked up behind bristle haired younger man and kept him from standing up from his seat by squeezing his shoulder.

"I have an assignment at Nellis, so, we ah, got in this morning, Sir." Thomas had to chuckle at his nervousness. He was still getting used to being a part of the family, but he knew it would not take long. Not with Stephanie on his case.

"That's two, Geoffrey." Stephanie called the anxious man on his formality slip with a dangerous raise of her eyebrow.

"Technically, it's only one, Mom. One for you, one for Pop." Michael winked at his partner, letting him know that they were only playing with him.

"I hate technicalities, but I'll give in for now." She smiled brightly and then looked up at her husband to ask, "Did they cancel your last meeting?" Stephanie looked at her watch to check the time. "Because I was sure you said you had meetings until four and you'd probably be late for dinner."

He nodded to show that she was right. "I did, but I got to thinking that I had this pretty wife sitting home, all alone, sorting through hundreds pictures, and how I should clear my schedule and go home to help her…" Looking around the room, he regarded her with a suspicious glare, "But I guess I was mistaken."

"If you had gotten here before lunch, then I would have been alone." Her wink was subtle, but to Thomas it spoke volumes. "But then I had to start dealing with the Sheriff and then Mikey showed up. It's been rolling downhill ever since."

"Thanks a lot." Sara gave her a well placed nudge with her elbow before she explained her presence. "My lunch date called and told me to meet her here when she saw the party."

Lilli snorted with her mother's comment, and then quickly covered her face with a hand. She was very self-conscious of the quirk, but Thomas had always found it rather endearing. "That was my fault. I had that deposition with the state HR lawyer. And when I stopped in to see if Steph needed a break from ass chewing to have lunch with me and Mom, I saw the rental car out front and knew it was going to be way more interesting here."

"So, it's pretty much just standard operating procedure with this crew?" Thomas smirked with his assessment of the events.

"Why change now?" His wife always had the answer, and he was glad for it.

"Right…" Thomas slapped his hands together and came up with a plan of attack. "How about I crank up the grill and break out those salmon steaks, and someone can go get Uncle Gil in time for dinner?"

"Sounds perfect, except for the Uncle Gil part." Stephanie's answer was cryptic and Thomas' face showed his confusion. "He's in Elko with his grad students collecting specimens, remember?"

"Okay then… I guess we'll have to find someone else to finish off the rest of those salmon steaks." Thomas turned for the steps and nearly knocked his youngest son over.

"I volunteer Bethie for that one." Danny held his father by the shoulders to keep both of them from falling as his baby sister came into view.

"Aw man, what am I getting volunteered for _this time_?" As she entered the room, Bethie was surprised to find her big brother in the floor and the moment her eyes met his they lit right up. "MIKEY!!"

In no time flat, Michael was up from the floor spinning his baby sister around in his arms. Thankfully for the others in the room, their energetic reunion was short-lived, as they quickly turned back to the family.

The second her eyes landed on the well-scrubbed, short haired athletic man in the chair, Bethie knew exactly who he was, and she wasted no time. "No freakin' way!" She turned and slugged her brother in the arm. "You mean, I finally get to meet the mystery man?!" Michael nodded as he struggled to contain his amusement. "It's about time! I was beginning to think he was hiding from me, or something."

Geoffrey stood up from his seat and took a few steps forward to greet the excited young lady properly. "Hello, I'm-" Before he could finish getting the words out, the tall vivacious red head had him completely wrapped up in a tight embrace.

Thomas knew from his conversations with the young man that he had been very apprehensive about meeting the youngest of his children. Geoffrey knew all about the special relationship he had with his only sister, and was nervous about her accepting him into their lives. He watched as all of Geoffrey's worry about meeting her was squeezed away in the welcoming arms of Michael's youngest sibling.

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

"Okay wait, wait… They seriously managed to convince some patrol cop that they fell out of the back of a mini-van, that they knew their address, but not their phone number, and got this poor rookie to drive them home?" Geoffrey was in complete disbelief of the story he had just been told.

Thomas nodded his head and continued with the story. "I had quite literally just fallen face first into the mattress after spending six hours in surgery. I was about to go completely comatose when that damn bell rang." He chuffed at the very idea of the bell ever ringing at their house. "I had to wait until he rang the bell the second time to be sure that's what it was. By the time I got down there I could hear this radio noise. I guess he was calling the address in to dispatch. When I opened the door, the twins come bouncing out of the back of the patrol car, bellowing something about how they got to play with handcuffs and the lights, but they weren't allowed to run the siren. They could have been giving out the secrets of nuclear fission at the time, but I was so disoriented by what was going on that I just stood there and nodded through the whole thing. I don't know how long that poor guy was trying to explain to me what happened, but the next thing I knew there were sirens and trucks pulling up in front of the house and Steph comes running at me in a panic."

Stephanie chose that moment to chime in, "Moron rookie calls it in as suspected missing children with suspicious circumstances and no response at the family home. Dispatch pulls the address and it's immediately flagged as a law enforcement residence, they call Cath and she grabs me in a car, hauling ass to the house, along with several other PD vehicles. I was completely freaked by the time we got here."

"What she forgets to tell you is that by then the scout leader had reported the boys missing and possibly abducted. So, she's already losing it when Cath grabs her." Sara added her own spin to the tale. "Gil and I were at the park searching everywhere for them, and Steph's Mom was sitting at our house with the kids completely beside herself. Thomas was the only one who had no idea what was going on, because he didn't have his phone on at the time."

Trying to stay out of the fray, Michael continued serving the food as his father removed the steaks from the grill. But he was not going to escape the whole thing unscathed when Lilli busted him. "And this one comes out when everyone shows up, asking if he can use the siren."

With all eyes on him, Michael had no choice but to shrug and say, "Well, they used them coming to the house, and I'd never gotten to push the button before."

Daniel, never one to leave a chance to bust Michael's chops unused took the plate from his older brother when he asked, "And how many months before they let you out of solitary confinement?"

"You laugh… I was seriously grounded for like forever. And Uncle Gil made us learn Latin, just so we could write 'I will not grow up to be a con artist' in three languages, a hundred times each." The whole table erupted into laughter with his punch line.

Sara waited for the table to quiet down and start into their dinner before she gave her final opinion on the event. "There was one really great thing to come out of that little escapade, though."

"What's that, Mom?"

"It showed us all that Warrick's alert system worked better than anyone ever anticipated, but the family alert system worked even faster than that." Everyone nodded their agreement. "In less than twenty minutes of the first call, we had high alert, search and rescue and emergency response in action, and within thirty minutes the twins were secured and already starting their punishments before anyone could even explain to Thomas what the hell had happened in the first place."

"I'm still not entirely sure what happened. I just know it was bad, and no member of the entire police department ever wants to cross paths with Stephanie ever again." Suddenly remembering their recent strife, Thomas rolled his eyes and clarified his position, "Well, at least the ones that value their lives and manhood, anyway."

"I'll tell you what I learned from that whole thing." Michael reached over the table for the bowl of grilled veggies as he spoke.

"It certainly wasn't about not being a con artist, no matter how many languages you learned to write it in." Geoffrey managed to get his own dig in.

"Ha, ha… No, what me and Paddy learned, without a doubt, was that there was really nothing this crew wasn't willing to do to keep us safe. I grew up knowing that I always had someone there for me, no matter what I did, and no matter where I was." He looked at his mother when he shared his final thoughts on the matter. "I knew what real friends were, because my parents had the best there was. They were so good, they were family."


	11. Part 11: Through the Years

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")  
_**A/N:**_ I'm flying solo on this one now, because the beta most familiar with this story is currently beating her head against the brick walls of higher education. And besides, who has time to ferret through another 12 page mammoth of mine all the time. ;)

_**A/N2:**_ I know it's been a while and I apologize, but Darth Real-Life is a vicious master sometimes. Right now I am trying to catch up with the graphics side of things. I already have the next chapter written, but I have a lot of pictures to manipulate, so I will have to beg for your patience. Thanks for still sticking with this series!

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

"Wow!" Michael stood up, marveling at the progress they had made in just two days. "I can't believe how much we've gotten done, Mom."

Stephanie was quite proud of herself, as well as her assistants. "It's amazing how much faster it goes when you have company."

As they looked around the table at all their work, Michael noticed his cousin Lilli deep in thought as she stared at one of the pages. He nudged his mother with a soft elbow and pointed in Lilli's direction.

Clearing her throat, Stephanie asked, "Hey Lilli, when you're done with that one, make sure it goes on the top of the stack, will ya?"

Lilli's head popped up and she looked surprised to find the others staring at her. "Oh, I'm sorry… What were you saying?"

"Something bothering you, Sweetie?" Stephanie stepped closer to the young woman in order to look at the page she was holding.

"No, I was just thinking, is all." The faraway look in her eyes told Stephanie a different story. "It's just weird… You know, looking at these pictures of my Dad when he was younger." She looked up and Stephanie could see a hint of sadness in her eyes. "He was just so young in these, and I guess I can't even imagine him ever being like that."

Nodding her head, Stephanie laid a hand on Lilli's shoulder and squeezed. "Yeah, I understand. The first time I saw a picture of my father when he was a rookie beat cop, I thought it was somebody else. My Pop couldn't have possibly been a young guy, ever. To me, he was always seasoned and wise, so there was no way I could think of him as young and foolish, not ever."

Lilli's shy smile told her all she needed to know. But when she spoke again, it was confirmed. "I feel like Daddy had this whole other life before us, like he was another person entirely, and maybe we missed out on knowing him better because of it. To know what it was that made him the man he is today."

Stephanie sat down beside the woman and sighed. "You're really lucky, kid."

"Why? What do you mean?" Lilli's confusion was evident on her face.

"Because I didn't learn that lesson until it was way too late to do anything about it." Stephanie turned to face her young protégé and said, "I'm going to say to you the same thing your father once said me. Do you love him for who he is now, for who he has been to you?"

Shocked by the question, Lilli reared back and shook her head in disbelief. "Well, yeah. Of course I do."

"Then none of the rest matters." Stephanie smiled as she took Lilli's hand. "And here's where you're luckier than I was… If you want to know something about the man he was before then ask him. Ask him about his first year as a CSI. Talk to him about what it was like to grow up on the beach. Get him to tell you about his time in the L.A. County Coroner's office."

Shaking her head, Stephanie sighed once more before she finished. "It was too late for me. He was already gone by the time I realized my Pop had that other life. Our fathers were not conventional men, Lilli. They went through a lot, and they sacrificed for many years. But they also gave us so much more than most of the men who grew up with their children ever could have. We were the culmination of all the living they did before we came along, and they made us the center of their worlds. I wouldn't have traded any of that for something as foolish as the chance to play basketball with my Pop."

Lilli nodded, and Stephanie knew that she understood. "Besides, I had Uncle Gil to do the silly stuff with me, and Pop was always there to cheer us on and laugh."

"And I've got you… Well, and Mom, too." As the two women embraced, Michael and Danny slipped into the kitchen.

Danny went straight for the fridge, while Michael put the things from the dining room into the sink. From the other side of the refrigerator door, Danny chuffed. "Crazy, huh?"

"What?"

He shrugged as he came out of the fridge with big bottle of juice. "This family… Nobody else has a family quite like ours."

Michael chuckled at his youngest brother's analysis as he reached into the cupboard for some glasses. "Yeah, but I wouldn't have it any other way, ya know?"

When he turned to put the glasses on the island, Danny took the first one and started to pour. "Probably because no one else would have you."

"Look who's talking?"

"Are you two at it again?" Bethie flounced into the kitchen right in the middle of their conversation.

Michael bumped her with his hip when she came to stand beside him. "Are you kidding? We never stopped." After she rolled her eyes at her big brother, Michael asked, "So, what's on your social calendar for today?"

"Um, I told Mom I'd help with the scrapbook thing today." Bethie reached forward and took one of the glasses of juice, which prompted Michael to pull another glass down from the cupboard.

"You might try waking up before the crack of noon then… We're already done." Michael winked at Danny to let him join in on the fun.

"Yeah, slacker… Do you really think Mom's gonna let it get much closer to the big day before it's done?" Danny finished pouring the juice and turned back toward the fridge before Bethie could see the grin threatening to overtake his face. "No way! We knocked out five pages this morning and just closed up shop."

"Oh man! And I promised Mom I'd help." Bethie slumped into her big brother's side with her exclamation.

Stephanie chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. "Help with what?"

Standing up straight as a rail, her nerves on end, Bethie launched into an apology. "I am sooooo sorry, Mom. I swear I didn't know you were finishing up the scrapbook this morning. I wouldn't have gone out with Duncan and Lily last night if I knew, I promise."

Eyeing her two sons closely, she knew they were up to something, but she also knew where their devilish streaks came from, and so she played along. "Well, I needed to get it done, and with your brothers and Lilli here, we were able to crank through a lot this morning." Stephanie set the two more plates inside the sink and shrugged as she asked, "Did you three have a good time last night?"

"Well…yeah, sure." Bethie was knocked completely off-balance by her mother's question.

"Then that's all that matters." Stephanie drove home the final nail in Bethie's coffin with her comment.

"Geez, Mom. Why don't you just kick my puppy, instead? It might be less painful." Bethie slumped back into her brother's side again and Michael laid an arm around her shoulders for comfort. He would later regret his move.

"Well, I guess, if you wanted, you could just help us with the rest after lunch." Bethie looked up with wide eyes as her mother lowered the boom. She then looked at her brother Danny, who was about to burst with laughter, and then to her brother Michael, who just beamed at her.

With the full force of an NCAA Women's Basketball player elbow, she jabbed her big brother's ribs with a heaving shove. "Jerks!"

"Owwww!" Michael's arm went from her shoulders to his side as he gasped for air. "Damnit! That thing hurts!"

Storming off into the next room she hollered back, "It wasn't meant to tickle."

Danny cringed as he watched Michael raise up his shirt to inspect the damage. "Note to self: Never stand close to Bethie when playing a joke on her. It looks like it hurts."

Lilli walked into the kitchen and sneered, "You oughta know…you both have Steph's temper."

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

Everyone else had either gone home, gone to bed, or was just plain gone shortly after lunch, leaving Bethie and her mother to work diligently on the remaining scrapbook pages. They passed the time with casual remarks, talk of school, talk about basketball strategies and workouts, discussions about the principles of theoretical math and how it related to the universe; typical mother daughter talk. That is, typical for this family anyway.

Bethie was very much her mother's daughter, and as the youngest, as well as the only girl, their time together was always precious to them both. She missed being able to sit down with her mother at any hour of the day or night and just chat. While she felt very strongly about going away to school, Bethie still wished she could have stayed closer to her mother as well.

It was hard being the youngest in such a dynamic family. Everything had already been done, probably even twice, by the time she got there, so standing out from the crowd was not an easy feat. And though she struggled to make her own identity, she also grew up knowing no doubt when it came to how very much she was loved and appreciated.

Growing up, her mother had always called her the miracle child, but not until she went away to school did she ever find out why. Bethie always assumed it was because she was the only girl after her mother had given birth to four boys. But one night, while having a heart to heart with her Aunt Kirsten she learned the truth about her mother's miscarriages, and how her parents had given up their dreams of more children because of the pain.

Bethie always knew she was an oops, but she never understood until that moment exactly why she was a miracle to her family. The pain and loss her parents endured gave her an immense amount of respect for them, and it actually made her feel even closer to both of them.

Occasionally looking up, Bethie kept stealing glances at her mother as she worked to arrange the photos on the wedding page. She had been working the courage up to talk to her mother about the miscarriages ever since her conversation with Kirsten, but something always managed to get in the way. As she clipped the various family photos of her Uncle Gil, Bethie began to chew on her bottom lip while she tried to work out the perfect way to bring up the topic.

"You got that from your Aunt Sara."

Startled, Bethie looked up to find her mother still working on her page. "What?"

"That lip chewing thing… Your Aunt Sara used to do that all the time. Drove me nuts." Her mother reached over and grabbed another handful of pictures as she spoke.

"Oh…yeah, sorry." Bethie tried to focus on the pictures and avoid anymore of her mother's attention.

"What's wrong?" Stephanie continued to trim the photo in her hand.

Bethie attempted to shrug off her mother's question. "Nothing… Not really."

"Riiiiight." Stephanie placed the photo on the page and then leaned back in her chair, her arms folded in front of her. "You want to try that again?"

Hanging her head, Bethie knew when she was beat. Her mother was a relentless interrogator, bested only by her Aunt Sara for sheer will and stubbornness. "There's a little honor in surrender, isn't there?"

"Only when you're doing battle with your mother." Sara walked into the dining room, sealing the fate on any chance Bethie had at getting out of a bad situation. Looking between the two redheads, the older woman held firm and asked, "So, what are we fighting about today?"

Stephanie was the first to speak. "She's picked up a bad habit from you, and she's trying to avoid telling me what's bugging her." Bethie tried to look indignant, but she knew it only made her look like a petulant child. "I let it go when we were at the cabin last month, because I figured she'd tell me when she was ready. But she's still keeping quiet about whatever it is and I'm done."

Sara took the seat opposite the two women and scrutinized the scene. She went first with Bethie. "Okay then, what's bothering you, kiddo?" When she was met with silence, Sara changed tacks and went to Stephanie. "What bad habit?"

"She's been gnawing on her bottom lip so much I swear it's gonna bleed." Sara struggled to stifle her amusement. Stephanie had always hated watching her chew her bottom lip. She claimed that while it was a great way to see trouble, it was a horrible habit and she should stop trying to eat her face. But it was when she noticed the same habit in her own daughter that Sara finally broke it in herself.

"All right… Bethie, you obviously know your mother isn't going to back down, so why don't you two agree to hash this out tomorrow, after all this other stuff is done, and then neither one of you wins outright. How's that sound?" Sara looked to Stephanie first. "Steph? Is that all right with you?"

"As long as I know she's okay…then I'd be willing to let it go until tomorrow." Sara gave herself a little pat on the back for making it halfway. Stephanie was difficult to debate under normal circumstances, but when it came to her children she was downright dangerous. To get such an easy concession from her was practically on the order of a miracle.

Bethie breathed a sigh of relief and nodded her head. She still wanted to talk to her mother, but she would rather not have an audience to do it. "I'm fine, Mom. I swear. It's just something I've been wanting to talk to you about. That's all."

Relieved to have resolved the conflict so effortlessly, Sara smiled and reached into the center of the table for a page to work on. "If I didn't have a temper myself, I'd have made a terrific UN negotiator."

Sara was rewarded for her joke by the spontaneous burst of laughter from the other two women in the room.

"Okay then… Could you pass me that glue thingie, Beth?" Sara smiled at her young niece as Bethie handed her the glue and shook her head.

As Sara looked down at the photos on the page she marveled at all the photos, some of which she had never seen. The one with Steph and Gil playing basketball struck her the hardest. She often wondered what they had lost by waiting so long to have a family of their own, and seeing him trying to wrestle the ball away from his goddaughter gave her a little glimpse of that life. Of course, if he had gone after a family earlier, she may never have known him, and that thought made her a little sad.

"You aren't supposed to tear up while we do this… You'll mess up the pages." Stephanie always had the best timing, as she caught her before she could drop into those dark thoughts.

"Just thinking. That's all." Sara did her best to hide the sadness and she continued to work.

"Which one?" Stephanie motioned for Sara to show her the picture in question. As she did, Stephanie simply nodded. "He was cheating, ya know?"

"Cheating?" Bethie came around the table to see what Sara was working on as she asked for clarification.

"How was he cheating?" Sara asked.

"In that picture… He was cheating. He never would have gotten close to that ball if he hadn't started tickling me." Sara and Bethie both chuckled at her insistence. "Total contact foul."

"Hey… Everything's legal on the blacktop." Bethie winked at her aunt when she passed judgment on her uncle's tactics.

"Don't even go there, missy." Stephanie gave her daughter a mock glare and they all laughed.

Bethie began to flip through the finished pages as she stood there. "Hey, Mom? Who're these people in the middle of the other 'early years' page?" She turned it around so that her mother could see it.

Stephanie nodded her head and answered, "That's your Grandma Mary, and your Uncle Gil's father, Walter. They were at some party or conference thing right here in Vegas at the time they posed for that one."

"But where's Uncle Gil?" Bethie was confused about why their picture would be on a page showing only pictures of her uncle.

"Well, according to your Grandma Mary…" Sara knew that pregnant pause meant trouble whenever Stephanie used it, and she cringed to await the punchline. "He was conceived less than an hour after that picture was taken."

What followed was a chorus of groans to match Stephanie's delighted laughter.


	12. Part 12: The Wisdom of His Years

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")  
__

_**A/N:**_ The muse has been unkind to me lately, but I think I've finally got that little hussy in her place again. Hopefully this won't take too much longer to complete. There's not too much more left, but lots of graphics work for the other side of this project.

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

Enjoying a quiet morning with his wife had once been a luxury for Gil Grissom, but as the children had grown up and moved away, they quickly became the norm. However, the afternoons were still the same hectic parade of event they had always been.

Shortly after Sara left for some kind of clandestine meeting with his niece, Gil decided a nap might just be in order. He had two appointments of his own that afternoon, and he wanted to be sharp for them.

Growing older, he was rediscovering the practice of actually sleeping. For much of his adult life he subsisted on only a modicum of sleep, but long about the age of seventy all of that changed. He began to sleep a full eight to nine hours a night, and as if that was not enough, he also discovered the value of the midday nap. Of course, he came to that discovery by way of his wife's insistence.

It seemed strange to him to be getting lectures about the value of sleep from the woman who could pull more double and triple shifts than he could during their time at the crime lab. But Sara had the advantage of pregnancy to learn the lessons of sleep and proper rest.

The complications during Sara's second pregnancy were the source of many changes in their lives. Not only did her hours have to change, Sara seemed to lose her thirst for the work. During her maternity leave, she found herself working with a few of Gil's students as they performed materials analysis and worked on creating a standard table of collision forces for vehicular accident investigations. And in no time at all, she was back in school working on her PhD and leaving the crime lab behind as a professor of Applied Physics.

The move was good for the both of them. It not only brought them back together working toward a common goal, but they were also on a level playing field for the first time in their professional careers; same titles, same responsibilities, same fields. They were educating and training a new breed of forensic scientists and investigators, together. And they were happy.

The best part of their new professional lives was that their children were literally able to grow up in their labs beside their parents. Lillian was studying the classes of the animal kingdom in his lab while other girls her age were learning the alphabet with cartoon pictures of animals. Max was adding up data for experiments in Sara's lab when the other boys were just learning how to count their fingers and toes. The twins performed experiments under many watchful eyes, which probably prevented several explosions. All of the children enjoyed the freedom of the labs, and it brought he and Sara immeasurable joy over the years.

As he lay back into the family room sofa, Gil lulled himself to sleep with all of the happy memories made in their labs. So many wonderful moments spread out over the years, a crooked smile played across his face just as his eyes softly closed.

His dreams were filled with all of those happy memories and the many more he hoped would come to pass. When the conscious world slowly came back into focus, Gil's chest heaved with a deep sigh of contentment. Another good, solid nap to add to the record books. He felt renewed and rejuvenated, ready to take on another day.

As much as he was prone to fight against the waste of time a nap represented, after each one he always felt better. At his age, if someone was visiting he hated to lose any time with them, but when he was alone, he would relent.

Sitting up, Gil took in a deep lungful of air and slowly blew it out again. He reached up to his neck and checked his pulse. Resting heart rate of sixty eight beats per minute, breathing easy, rested and conscious: all the necessary ingredients for another great day.

Rising from the couch, Gil thought he heard some rustling in the next room and he looked down at his watch. Sara was supposed to be gone for another three or four hours, and he was fairly certain Lillian was working, so she should have been sleeping before her shift. Gil straightened his slacks and sweatshirt before going to investigate the noise coming from his office.

Turning the corner, Gil found a very tall and still very scruffy looking young man in his office going through the slide boxes on an upper shelf. "Oh hey, Uncle Gil. I didn't wake you up, did I?"

He smiled brightly at his young protégé and began to fish around for his glasses as he spoke, "Not at all. I didn't even hear you until I was already awake." Finding the offending item resting on the edge of his desk, he picked them up and placed them on his face. "But what on earth are you doing here, Michael?"

"Oh, I was asking Aunt Sara about some slides from one of our trips, and she told me where to find them. But she'd skin me if I woke you up, so I really hope I didn't." Michael stepped down from a small stool holding a box of slides.

"No, and I will be sure to tell her you had no part in waking me." He looked down at his watch again and remarked, "I have an appointment in just over an hour, and I set my alarm to give myself time to prepare for it."

"Oh well, I'll get out of your way just as soon as I can." He turned back to the shelf and looked questioningly at the location of his intended target. "I just need to fin-."

"What've you got there?" Gil gestured for the box in Michael's hands and waiting for him to pass it over. "Ah, yes. Your graduation trip through Central America." He opened the lid and sat down in the chair beside his desk. "I seem to recall we had quite an adventure on that trip."

Michael chuckled at the memories. "That we did. Especially when we threw Jimmy into that river you'd convinced him was filled with flesh eating fish." Michael laughed out right remembering the screams of terror coming from his little brother. "You can be just as evil as Mom when you put your mind to it, Uncle Gil."

"Who do you think she learned it from?" Gil raised an eyebrow to punctuate his question.

Shaking his head, Michael denied his assertion. "Sorry, Uncle Gil. But evil like Mom's is inborn. It can't just be taught."

Gil chuckled at his nephew's conclusion. "You might have a point there." He closed up the slide box and placed it on the edge of his desk. "Now, what are you looking for?"

Stepping back up onto the stool, Michael called over his shoulder, "Well, I was hoping to find those pictures of our first Yucatan trip, to show the variations over time in my presentation as I describe the data that's been collected." He turned back with a devilish grin on his face, "And maybe I wanted to sneak out the pictures from our behind the scenes tour of Monterrey Bay Aquarium."

"You just want to embarrass my daughter again." Gil was rewarded for his insight with a huge grin from his nephew. "And so, I would never tell you they're in the green box on the second shelf marked two thousand sixteen, box two. No matter how many times you ask me, I just won't-no the dark green one." He pointed him further to the left as he interrupted himself. "Nope, no matter how much you ask me, I will not divulge that information."

"Good thing you aren't easily persuaded, Uncle Gil. Because that would have been really bad for Lilli." Michael laughed as he pulled the suspected box down from the shelf. "So, since you won't tell me where these are, maybe you can point me in the right direction for those Yucatan pictures?"

"Huh… Well, I'm trying to remember when we took you kids there for the first time. I know we went to Baja when Max and Jimmy were babies, but that was just a beach trip. And I know when we took you to the Yucatan Lillian was in school, but I can't remember what grade." As Gil searched his memory he tried to do the math that would get him to the right year.

"Twenty-twelve. Paddy and I were in kindergarten, and that was our first Spring Break trip." Michael started flipping through the boxes to find the right year. "Box one, two, three or four?"

"My money would be on number two. I'm fairly certain I was putting them into quarterly boxes at that point."

Michael nodded and reached for the second box. "Sounds like a good plan." He had to use a little effort to break it loose from the other boxes, which forced an envelope to come tumbling out and fall onto the floor. "Uh-oh."

Hopping down from the stool, Michael set the box on the side table before squatting down to retrieve the fallen envelope. As he picked it up, the label came into view. "Okay, Uncle Gil… Is this something you're hiding from Aunt Sara for some reason?" Michael gave him a sly look that confused him.

"What are you talking about?" Gil questioned. "What fell?"

"It's an old brown envelope marked ominously as 'Modeling Pictures.' There's no date and no other information." Michael began to unravel the string holding the envelope closed. "Am I going to be shocked to see what's insi-"

The moment the item registered in his mind, Gil instantly stopped him from looking inside the envelope. "Michael, hand me that envelope."

Without hesitating, Michael stopped removing the fastener and passed the envelope to his uncle. "Sorry, Uncle Gil. I was just joking around. I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's okay. These were entrusted to me, and I don't really feel comfortable sharing them." He tried to take some of the tension out of the exchange. "I didn't mean to snap."

"It's cool… Really. I was just goofing. No harm, no foul." Michael picked up the other boxes of pictures and tucked them under his arm. "I'll get these back to you as soon as Jimmy makes the prints for me, okay?"

"That would be fine." Gil nodded his agreement, but he continued to hold the envelope close to him.

Michael checked his watch and swore, "Dang! I need to get a move on, Uncle Gil. I'm supposed to be at Nellis in less than thirty minutes for some security clearance thing-a-ma-bob for Geoffrey." Clapping his uncle on the shoulder, he smiled. "Have fun with your appointments, and I'll probably see you for dinner tonight, right?"

"Most definitely. Your mother wouldn't hear of anything else. That, and she promised to keep my wife hostage unless I agreed to show up." Gil gave him a shy, crooked smile.

"And she'd do it, too!" They both chuckled and the tension finally seemed to have abated. "Do you need a ride there? 'Cause we can swing by here on the way back from Nellis to pick you up."

Gil thought about it, and he liked the idea of not having Sara driving back and forth too many times. "Well, if you don't think it will be too far out of the way…"

"Not at all, and I'll call Aunt Sara to let her know she doesn't need to ride in the family road rally tonight." Michael squeezed his shoulder and smiled before heading out the door.

Listening for the closing of the front door, Gil felt supreme relief the moment it snicked closed. Loosening his grip on the envelope, he suddenly felt incredibly foolish for his behavior with Michael.

It was silly to get so riled up about a couple handfuls of photographs, the most recent of which were nearly fourty years old. But he took very seriously his responsibility to keep the secrets of those wonderful people in the photos.

Standing up, he took the photographs with him as he made his way to his desk chair. As he sat down he opened the envelope the rest of the way and retrieved the pictures to lay out on the desk. Carefully handling the delicate treasures, he looked through them, one at a time, separating the images as he placed them on the desk.

There were many things he knew about specific people that were known to no one else. But this was a special case.

Sara had spent many years in foster care, and while she did obtain an academic scholarship to Harvard, it did not begin to cover all of her expenses. At first she tried working the same kind of job she had in high school, but the hours it required to make what she needed began to take a toll on her studies. When she was approached by a man at the coffee house she was working, her first thought was that he was just a creep. But the man had given her a card for his photography studio and she slipped it into her pocket, not to think about it again until closing.

As they were locking up for the night, she found the card in her pocket and mentioned it to the owner of the shop. She was surprised to learn that the man was indeed a professional photographer, and a reputable one at that. He was well known in the business community for his advertising work, and the owner told Sara she should check out his offer.

The owner was right, and soon Sara was doing regular photo shoots with the photographer as his stock model. It was a lot of stuff for various local magazine ads, and some catalog work, but it gave Sara the money she wanted and the time she needed for school. And so, for three years his wife was a student-slash-model.

She was grateful her photos were never seen West of the Mississippi, and felt safe in the knowledge they never would be. That was until she moved in with Gil, and he stumbled upon the envelope currently resting beneath the photographs. She was mortified to have him see the evidence of any form of vanity on her part. But he surprised her by marveling at the quality of the work and the pride he displayed at being the boyfriend of a real live model. Feeling slightly giddy from his praise, she agreed to let him keep the photos, just as long as no one else ever saw them. And he kept his promise… Mostly. Thomas had come over to the house and wanted to borrow a photograph of Stephanie that he knew Gil had, and that was when it happened.

They were going through the boxes of pictures Gil kept in his office when Thomas found the envelope. Making the same mistake his son would make some twenty years later, and assuming Gil had been hiding some inappropriate pictures in the office, he was not nearly as successful with Thomas as he was with Michael, and the man opened the envelope. Inside he found two more envelopes, one labeled "Sara" and the other labeled "Stephie." Then he had no choice but to explain.

Much like Sara, Stephanie had obtained scholarships to attend Berkeley. But her father was a cop and her mother was a science teacher, and Stephanie refused to take any money from them for her expenses. That was when she enlisted the help of her Uncle Gil to find a reputable agent to deal with the photographers who had always pestered her to sit for them. Stephanie was a beautiful girl, and she most certainly looked grown up, even when she was only fourteen.

Despite her looks, she was never very comfortable with the more artsy photographers. As a result Stephanie was a very popular catalogue model for a few years, paying for part of her high school tuition, and her other expenses during college. And when she went away to medical school, she closed the door on that part of her life.

She so completely put it out of her mind, she never even told Thomas about it. Gil had to make Thomas promise with his own life that he would not break the confidence with anyone. Stephanie was actually embarrassed by the fact that she had been a model. Not because of the work, but because she took the easy way and failed to do something more constructive with her time to earn the money.

Staring at the fresh young faces contained in those images, Gil chuckled at the similarities he saw there, and the countless others he had discovered over the years between these two vastly different women. With as many things as they shared, Sara and Stephanie were still such unique beings in his world. He continued to marvel at the incredible friendship these women in his life were able to forge, despite their differences and similarities.

Gently gathering up the photographs and returning them to the envelope once more, Gil decided he needed another place to store the contraband images. After retrieving a key from the bottom of his desk drawer, he slowly got up from his chair and walked across the room to picture frame on the wall.

He gingerly removed his prized painting of a father and daughter riding a scooter through a grove of palm trees from the wall. He loved the painting his daughter picked out for his sixtieth birthday, and used it to hide the safe in which he kept all of the important documents of their lives. The birth certificates, their marriage license, the insurance policies, the deed to the house, locks of hair from the children's first haircuts, their lost teeth, and the christening gown worn by every Grissom for the last five generations. And that was where he lovingly placed the envelope. Safely resting with the important things in his life, the images of vibrant youth would reside. The secrets of these two very special women would be kept far from any prying eyes.

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

Sara and Stephanie sat quietly in the solarium, enjoying a pot of tea after putting the pictures away for the day. They managed to finish all but a couple pages over the course of the day, and the tea was their reward.

At the sound of the garage door opening up, Stephanie turned her head to the house and asked, "So, you want five on Thomas or Mikey?"

Sara stretched out her arms and legs, strangely resembling a napping cat and she answered, "No way, that's a sucker's bet." She let out healthy yawn and explained, "We both know Thomas is in surgery all afternoon. And since Lilli is here with us, you know Michael can't stay away too long."

She was rewarded for her insight when they heard Lilli call out to her favorite partner in crime. The two chuckled at their combined knowledge of their family and they returned their attentions to the cups of tea before them. However, their peaceful retreat was about to be disturbed when Michael and Lilli moved to the adjoining kitchen area.

Lilli's was the first voice they could hear, as usual. "You didn't wake him up, did you?"

"Nah, he came in to help me find 'em after he woke up. Said he had some appointment." Michael's voice was slightly more muffled, which could only mean his head was buried in the refrigerator.

"So, did you find what you were looking for?" Her speech was somewhat garbled then, and they both knew she was nibbling on something Michael had probably handed her.

"Boy, did I! And then some!" Michael's tone was excited, but Stephanie also recognized the hint of mischief in the undertone.

"What?" That was the question they all wanted answered as they detected the voices growing closer.

As the two pushed their way out into the solarium, Michael simply blurted out, "I totally stumbled across Uncle Gil's porn stash."

Simultaneously, Stephanie and Sara spat their tea across the table with their surprise. "WHAT?!"

Michael and Lilli stood like a couple of kids with their hands in the cookie jar. Turning to Lilli, Michael exclaimed, "You didn't tell me they were out here!"

"Forget that," Stephanie said, "What the hell were you talking about? What porn?"

"You have to be kidding, right? I have never seen any such thing in that house." Sara was convinced he was pulling her daughter's leg.

"Well, I didn't necessarily see the porn, or anything. But come on, Aunt Sara. It was a plain brown envelope of pictures and magazines and it just said 'Modeling Pictures' on the outside." Michael shrugged his broad shoulders in an almost comical gesture and said, "What else would it be?"

The stricken looks on both of their faces told a story only the other would be able to understand. As Stephanie looked away, the blush rapidly rising on her cheeks, Sara looked Michael dead in the eye and told him, "Those aren't what you think they are, because I have seen them…most of them. It's just another one of his odd collections, I promise."

Once their eldest and bewildered children went back into the house, Stephanie turned to Sara and they were unable to stop the deep resonating laughter that erupted.

As Michael and Lilli made their way downstairs, they could hear their mother's laughing and it confused them to no end. "I just don't get them sometimes," Michael said in disgust.

"Shut up, Dude… I'm still trying to get the image of my parents looking at porn together out of my head." Lilli shuddered at the thought.

"Oh please!" Michael nudged her with a conspiratorial look on his face as he exclaimed, "You know we both only learned French just so we could read the _good_ books in your parents' library."

Lilli's cry of revulsion threw Michael into a fit of laughter as they sprinted away from their mothers.


	13. Part 13: Something Wicked This Way Comes

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")

_**A/N:**_ Been struggling with this one a little lately, but here's the next one. Only 2 more chapters to go. Hopefully, the next one won't take so long.

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

Seated behind a desk in the familiar office once belonging to his predecessors, Dr. David Phillips diligently filled out schedules for the coming month. A long way from body pickups and cleanup duty, as the assistant chief coroner his duties included a different form of body shuffling. He had to schedule the fourteen medical examiners for duty at the various facilities throughout Clark County. With seven of them working at the Metro Center Morgue, it was always something of a challenge. But there were two consistencies to every single schedule; his name appeared every weekday, and from Sunday to Thursday night the name of Dr. Lillian Grissom was repeated, without fail.

Sitting back from the computer, David pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up on the bridge of his nose and smiled from the side of his face. Having the daughter of Sara Sidle around served two purposes; the first of which was to make him feel incredibly old. The second was that he had a first rate, A number one, workaholic genius in his employee pool. Lilli Grissom was every bit of her mother and her father, with a dash of her godmother thrown in for good measure.

David sat back further, lacing his hands behind his head as he stared at a photograph on his desk. A sea shell frame made by his daughter held the image of a group of women looking out on the surf as they prepared to subdue another batch of waves.

Stephanie O'Halleran was not just his boss, she was his friend, and somewhere along the way they had become family. She was at his wedding. She was there to congratulate him upon graduating medical school. When his wife Sandi failed to recognize she was in labor, Stephanie even helped deliver his son. And for every day in between, she was always there when he needed her.

For an Air Force brat who never had more than his parents and a little sister to get by on, through his friendship with Steph, he was irrevocably brought into a huge extended family. He remembered fondly the day he had to explain to his son that Aunt Stephanie was not really one of his parent's sisters. So strong was their bond, it was hard to see they were not blood relatives. Thankfully his wife saved him from total confusion when she explained, "Some family you're born into, and some family you get drafted into."

David was broken out of his memories by a familiar voice. "Hey, Super Doc! Long time no see." Michael O'Halleran trotted into his office with a beaming smile.

"Mikey!" David stood up from his chair and walked around his desk to greet the young man. "It wouldn't be such a long time if you'd stop gallivanting all over the globe so you'd have more time to visit."

Michael's smile grew as they shook hands. "Yeah, well, if I wasn't gallivanting all the time, I wouldn't exactly be able to work, ya know?" David nodded with a smile to show his understanding. "And besides, you guys appreciate me more when I'm not around all the time."

His humor never failed to make David laugh. Michael was always a joy to have around, even when he was getting into trouble. And he was always getting into trouble. "Well, I'm sure you aren't here to see an old man, and you most certainly know your mother isn't here, so…"

"Yeah, never could get anything past you, Doc. Like that time when we tried to switch the turkey out for Danny before everyone got to the table." They both shared a good laugh at the memory.

"I'm still not sure whose idea that was, because I seem to recall a very suspicious looking scout wearing pigtails in the living room that day." David gave him a knowing glance, "And I've long suspected you and your brother weren't nearly devious enough to come up with half the stuff you two tried to pull off."

Michael winked when he answered, "But after twenty eight years, I'm sure you've realized we aren't snitching, either."

Shaking his head, David sat back against his desk and added, "Thick as thieves, the whole lot of you. But back to the real reason you came up here instead of going straight down to Lilli's office…"

"Yeah…that." Michael checked the hall behind him nervously and then leaned in to ask, "I was wondering if you could arrange for Lilli to have off the two days after the party."

David smiled, knowing Michael had not changed very much. "And the purpose of this would be?"

"Oh come on, Doc. I have to go back to D.C. that Monday, and I kinda wanted to surprise her with something before I go." Michael clasped his hands together and gave him his best puppy dog eyes. Of course, with all the hair Michael was currently sporting, it was more like teddy bear eyes.

But he smiled brighter that time and nodded to show his agreement. "I just happen to be working on the schedule right now. And I was noticing she hasn't really taken any time off the last couple months, so I was looking at a forced holiday anyway."

Michael immediately reached out to shake his hand in gratitude. "Thanks a million, Doc. This means a lot and I really want to surprise-"

Popping her head in the door, Lilli interrupted them, "Hey, Doc. I posted the reports for the drunk driver, and we're just waiting on Tox for the final."

Without missing a beat David asked, "How can you declare him a drunk driver if you're still waiting for the toxicology reports?"

Lilli shrugged as she stepped into the office and punched her cousin in the arm. "Easy… I pulled about half a liter of undigested rot gut whiskey from his stomach, so I'm willing to bet the other half of the bottle was already thinning his blood and frying his brain."

"Fair assumption," David nodded and pushed his glasses back up on his nose. "But I'd still rather wait for the toxicology report."

Shaking her head, Lilli chuckled, "Spoken like a true administrator." She turned to Michael and looked for backup. "What do you think?"

Michael shrugged and then smiled, "I think it sounds like something I really don't want to get in the middle of."

"You're no fun." David watched as Lilli swatted Michael with the folder before handing it over to him. "Have you got anything else for me, or can I break the shackles of tyranny today?"

With a roll of his eyes, David dismissed them both, "The shackles of tyranny will await you another day. Get out of here you two, before you get some crazy idea and I have to fill out more paperwork…again."

David watched the two troublemakers leave his office and he had to laugh when he overheard Lilli asking her mischievous cousin what he was up to, and he knew the playful banter that would follow. As he sat down behind his desk he was grateful for all the things in his life, but most especially for the amazing family he had been fortunate enough to be drafted into.

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

"Okay, Aunt Kirsten. I'll make sure someone's at the airport… Oh crap! Yeah, could you bring that with you, please?... Thanks a million!... See ya next week!" Beth hung up the phone and shook her head in amusement.

"Forget something?" At Danny's words Beth nearly jumped to the rafters in the high ceilinged living room.

"Jesus, Danny! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Danny just laughed as he plopped down in the armchair with a medical journal in his hands. Beth, still breathing heavy from the shock swatted at his mass of red curls. "I hate the way you do that."

"It's got nothing to do with me. It's all you, kiddo." Danny chuckled as he began to flip through the pages.

Her hand planted on her hip, Beth asked, "And how do you figure that?"

"To paraphrase the little green dude," from behind his journal Danny's voice changed and he comically squeaked out, "'All her life has she looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never her mind on where she was.'" When he was met with silence, he explained, "You never pay attention to what's going on around you, because you're too busy worrying about the next step, the next move, the next thing. You're always at least two steps ahead of where you are in your head, Squirt."

"And just what's wrong with that?" Danny dropped the journal to find Beth glaring at him.

"Nothing…if you want to miss all the good stuff. Like the fact that you missed breakfast with Mikey and Lilli because you were too busy trying to figure out what you and Duncan were gonna do tonight. Or when you totally missed out on going to prom with Tyler Mackenzie's little brother because you were too caught up in going to that military academy formal." Danny shrugged his shoulders and returned to reading when he flipped out one last comment. "But if that's how you wanna roll, it's your business."

Crestfallen by her brother's analysis, Beth made her way into the kitchen where her mother and Aunt Cath were having a chat. An obvious pout on her face was immediately recognized by the matriarchs and it was not left alone.

"Good grief, Bethie, you look like someone just smudged your microscope. What's up, Squirt" Aunt Cath was never one to mince words.

"It's nothing. I just hate Danny right now." Beth took the milk and the chocolate syrup from the fridge before reaching for a very large glass.

"Drowning your sorrows in chocolate milk won't solve anything… What happened this time?" Her mother took the glass from her hand and put it down on the island as she put an arm around her shoulders. "Spill it…then we'll decide on the milk."

"Well, he said that I miss out on everything because I'm too far ahead of where I'm at. Like I don't see what's there because I'm too worried about where I'm going." Beth leaned into her mother's side as she pulled her in closer. "And the worst part is…I think he's right."

Her mother laughed a little at her final conclusion, but Aunt Cath only shook her head and clucked. "I swear to you… I really think you guys are related somehow."

"Oh come on, Cath. We've been through this for thirt-"

"I don't care how many times we've been through it. The kids weren't even around him when he was like that and they're doing it, too!" Her Aunt Cath was obviously complaining about Uncle Gil again, but Beth was too distracted to pay it any real attention.

"I don't care about all of that. I just want to know how to fix it!" Beth was not in the mood for one of her Aunt Cath's tirades.

Her mother quickly came to her rescue. "You just have, sweetie." When Beth gave her a confused look she chuckled and squeezed her tighter. "You've recognized the problem, and that's the biggest part. Now all you have left is to do something about it."

"But what do I do?"

"Well, now that's the hardest part. You've got to figure out how to slow down some parts of your life, without sacrificing the others." Beth hated those kinds of non-answers from her mother, when they all boiled down to one thing; _you figure it out_.

"Gee, Mom… Thanks. That's so much clearer now." That time her Aunt Cath was the one laughing.

"What's clearer?" With the entrance of her Aunt Sara, Beth decided that it was apparently not her day.

"Oh great… Can I just go to my room now and think about what I've done? You know, since that's exactly how this conversation is gonna end up." Beth dropped her head and arms to the island counter with a thud.

"I've walked into the middle of something, haven't I?" Sara looked between the two women trying to hold back their laughter.

Stephanie laid a hand on Beth's head and explained, "Bethie's upset because Danny told her she's missing out on the important stuff because she's too busy looking ahead all the time."

"Oh…_that_." Sara rolled her eyes as she hung her purse on the back of a chair. "Been there, done that…I think I still have the t-shirt."

Her voice muffled by her arms and speaking into the counter, Bethie asked, "Really?"

"Oh honey, in this family, it's almost a prerequisite." With Stephanie's words, Beth began to lift her head out of her arms. "I think it's some weird by-product of being an over-achiever."

"Well, what did you do to break the habit?" With Beth's question, Cath barked out in laughter. "What?"

Cath tried to wave her off as she regained her composure. "I'm still not convinced she has, kiddo. I just think you all and your Dad caught up to her."

"Okay, then how did you figure it out?" Beth was upright again and challenging her aunt to the truth.

"Honestly?" Cath girded herself for the challenge. "I realized Lindsey was suddenly a teenager and I couldn't remember how she got there. And worst yet, I didn't even recognize her anymore."

"What did you do?" Beth was genuinely interested in her answer.

"I changed my priorities. Stopped worrying about what I wasn't getting out of life and focused more on what I had. And somewhere along the way I managed to get it all." They all watched as Catherine lovingly turned the ring still on her finger as she recalled the turn in her life.

"That's cool. But I don't think that's gonna help me very much." Beth smiled with just a hint of sadness behind it. They all missed her Uncle Warrick, but no one could understand the depth of sadness her Aunt Cath felt over his loss.

Turning to Sara, Beth asked, "So, what did you do to break it, Aunt Sara?"

They all watched as the blood drained out of Sara's face with Beth's question. "Um, well, Bethie, really it's kind of something that everyone, has to, you know, figure out for, um, themselves."

Beth watched as her aunt stumbled through a really bad non-answer, but it was her mother's tightly concealed amusement that struck her curiosity. "Okay, there's obviously another family story hidden in there…" Beth struck a defiant pose and demanded, "And I'm not going anywhere until I hear it."

Stephanie laid an arm around her daughter's back and chuckled, "Bethie, honey. You aren't old enough for this story. So, let's just say that in this particular area…your Aunt Sara is NOT the star pupil, and she had to learn this lesson quite a few times before it finally sunk in."

"Aw, man. You guys have all the good dirt, and you suck at sharing." She grabbed up the milk, syrup and glass before turning to leave. "And if you won't help me, then I'm drinking the whole thing, so there."

The three women giggled at her indignant departure from their midst. Once she was well out of ear shot, Stephanie offered, "You should have told her something."

"Like what?" Sara was serious about not divulging any of her personal experience with the problem. "Let's see… Getting blown up? No, not exactly recommending that one. How about almost getting a DUI? No…Way!" Catherine and Stephanie shook their heads at Sara's explanation, knowing it was true, but it was also not the whole truth. "Oh, I know, practically having a nervous breakdown and nearly getting fired… That's a good one, right? And I am not about to recommend the last one to a sixteen year old, either."

Stephanie scrunched up her face as she tried to figure out what the last one was. "What are you talking about?"

Sara never got the chance to answer her when Catherine spoke up, "Being green with jealousy over some fresh faced kid and then spending an entire weekend boffing her brains out with her boss, before getting married and knocked up all in the same year."

There was a moment of silence that followed Cath's incredibly blunt summation of the turn in Sara's life, and then the howls of laughter broke out, spreading through the entire house.

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

Entering the house through the garage, Michael could hear the roar of laughter coming from the kitchen and knew to avoid the women currently inhabiting it. To his right he could hear the television playing some sporting event and knew to steer clear of Bethie if she was watching TV. Television was what she did when she was brooding about something and he just had too much to do to get into that kind of fight.

The person on the other end of his phone brought him back into the moment. "That's perfect. As soon as you get there have him give me a call so I can finish making all the arrangements…" He quickly made his way up the stairs, not paying any attention to the mop of red hair following his progress. "Yeah, like I said, this is a once in a lifetime chance to work on a government project without getting 'escorted' out of the country by armed soldiers when they switch governments or just decide you've found something they want more."

Michael peeked in his little brother's room to see if he was there, and finding it empty, he continued to his room. "Hey, anytime, brother… When I found out about you getting ousted in Argentina, I immediately recommended you for this one. It's perfect for you, plus I knew you were trying to find a more stable gig after Merridith came up preggers…" He shuffled through a stack of papers on his nightstand as he waited for the other man to finish giving him hell.

"Are you kidding? Project manager with health bennies, and a non-revolutionary country for the next eighteen months… What self-respecting environmentalist with a kid on the way could turn that one down?" He laughed at the man's answer and then concluded, "Not to mention you don't even have to come within a thousand miles of a college classroom…what more could you ask for, dude?... Hey look, I'm glad you took the job, man. Now, just tell the guy you're replacing to get his sorry carcass back stateside, so he can deal with his own family business."

Michael was busy digging in the closet for a shirt as he finished up his phone call, and he missed the fact that Danny was standing in the doorway. "Good deal… I'll talk to you in a couple weeks, once we've both gotten settled in again… Yeah, I've gotta do some dinner thing on the base with Geoffrey tonight, and all this party stuff for my Mom, plus the rest. I just need to get a few things off my plate before we can talk turkey about roach population statistics in the Americas… Talk to you in a couple weeks, brother. And enjoy the new digs… Bye, Neil."

He hung up the phone and turned to toss it onto the bed when he finally caught sight of Danny. "Jesus, Danny! Stop that, man." Michael clutched his chest to recover from the shock.

"Not my fault you were too caught up in the phone call…" Danny leveled him with a comically raised eyebrow, "Which sounded suspiciously like someone plotting again."

Michael grabbed the shirt he was looking for and then grabbed up his toiletry bag from the nightstand as he passed Danny in a hurry to the bathroom. "Why would you think something like that?"

"Because you're my older brother, and I know damn well that you're ALWAYS up to _something_." Danny followed him to the bathroom.

"Well, you couldn't be more wrong…this time." Michael shot him with a devilish wink to show he acknowledged his reputation as a mischief maker. "Just doing an old friend a favor."

"What old friend would have you wheeling and dealing to pass off a project lead spot?" Danny was still not convinced.

"Well, the friend is more of a professional acquaintance and…" Michael paused as he ripped his t-shirt over his head and tossed it on the counter. "He happens to be a leading climatologist, as well as being in charge of research at one of the largest environmental foundations in the world. So, doing him this favor is good for me all the way around."

"What exactly are you doing?" Danny handed his brother a fresh towel from the linen closet as he spoke.

"Um, he got stuck manning this big research project for the military out on Guam when his last guy up and quit just before the MPs were gonna bust him on a drug charge." Michael flipped on the water and waited for it to achieve the right temperature. "So, Laurie got stuck out there until he could find a replacement and he's got all this family stuff going on right now. Poor guy was desperate enough to ask me to take on the project, just temporarily." Finishing his explanation, Michael proceeded to wash his face, and wet all the hair on his head. None of which was a small undertaking.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. But I thought you said it was a guy?" Danny waited for his brother to sop up the excess water with the towel before getting his answer.

"What?" At first Michael looked confused and then he understood. "Oh right, 'Laurie' is short for Laurent. Dr. Laurent St. George. He's originally from one of those islands where they speak some version of French." With a black comb, Michael began coming through his insanely thick beard in an attempt to bring some order to his appearance. "Great guy, though. He served on the review committee for my first doctorate."

Danny took the towel from the counter and dumped it into the clothes hamper. "And helping him is likely to pay off for you with grant money and maybe even an easier course for your current doctorate?"

"Hit the nail on the head, brother dear." Running a grooming brush through his much shorter hair, Michael checked to be sure every hair on his head was going in the right direction. He lowered his hands and checked his reflection in the mirror once more. "What do you think?"

"You look like a schizophrenic mountain man." Michael rolled his eyes at his brother's declaration. "Okay, maybe not that bad… How about a hippie with a bad hair cut?"

"I like this hair cut, what's wrong with it?" Michael affected a slight pout at Danny's insult.

"It's the beard, dude. All that hair totally wrecks the whole thing, and most definitely your face." Danny was having a good time chiding his brother.

"Look who's talking, Ronald McDonald… Can I get some fries with that, Clown Boy?" The two enjoyed their clever banter, but they also had some good points.

"Fair enough… So, if I cut my hair, you'll shave your beard?" Danny's question sounded like a challenge, perhaps even a dare.

Michael sized him up and down and then said, "High noon, Gambino's Barber Shop? The chicken has to wear a dress to Uncle Gil's party?" The gauntlet had been thrown down.

With his hand held out, Danny sealed their fates, "You've got a deal."


	14. Part 14: Cutting It Down To The Wire

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")

_**A/N:**_ Much faster turnaround than the last time, but I got hung up on some technicalities. Here's hoping the last chapter doesn't actually kill me. This has been a long and very fulfilling road, and I want to take this time to thank all of you for taking this journey with me. Also, if you haven't check out the story on my website, now would be a really good time. Not only are all the pictures and scrapbook pages talked about in the story there, but there are a few easter eggs hidden in links through some of the chapters. What does that mean? It means you could be missing a lot more story by only reading it here.

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

Grand Central Station would be considered uncrowded and calm compared to his mother's house today. But Michael was playing traffic cop and switchboard operator for this melee, and there was no option for failure on this mission. It was the day before the big event, and there was no time for anything to go wrong. The problem was…not only were things going wrong, it seemed like everything was going wrong at the same time.

The first stumbling block came in the form of Greg and his brood missing their first flight when Niko's baby decided it would be a good time to projectile vomit on half the family. Thankfully they made it onto the next flight, after changing into some of the clothes from their carry-on bags. Laundry would be their first priority upon reaching the house. With Bethie well versed in their antics, he put her in charge of sorting the Sanders Clan out.

The next problem surfaced when Brian called to tell him that someone in reservations had screwed up some of the rooms at the Rampart. Michael was just not ready for that to happen. He was only able to breathe again when Brian called back two hours later saying it was all taken care of, and he was even able to scrounge up a suite at the last minute. It really paid to have a casino manager in the family.

Then he got a call from Lilli asking him who misspelled her father's name on the cake. She was standing in the bakery making the final inspection on the cake when she discovered the problem. Michael was about to come unglued when Lilli let him off the hook and said she caught it before they put anything on the cake. He was absolutely going to pay her back for that one.

So, when Max called to tell him he was arriving late that night instead of in time for dinner, he was just about ready to scream. Max had a last minute problem at the lab and Amanda was stuck at an appointment or something and had not been able to get everything packed in time, so Max just moved their flight back. As Michael was going through his itinerary, trying to figure out who was going to be able to pick them up from McCarran, Max told him that Jimmy was going to grab them on his way home and not to worry about it. _Yeah, right, like that's gonna happen._

He was busy shifting the schedule around when his phone rang. "Michael, captain on the ship of fools." His flip answer was rewarded with a deep laugh on the other end. "Oh hey, I wasn't expecting your call for another seven hours, did you catch-" He was stopped dead in his tracks by the voice on his phone. "What do you mean, 'the flight got cancelled?'"

All the blood drained out of his face as the person on the other end of the line explained the situation. "No Way! That's totally gonna screw up the whole damn thing!" He was screaming into the phone before he realized the whole house would be able to hear him and he quickly ducked out into the garage. "Seriously, man, this is totally jacked up. Are you sure there isn't another flight-… No, I understand… What's the earliest you can get out, then?"

He started going through his itinerary again as the times were relayed to him. "And what about the connecting flight? ... Oh yeah, I guess you're right. It's not like there's a shortage of flights into Vegas from pretty much anywhere… Yeah, I know, you can't control the weather or anything, but this is the third flight you've missed and we've reached critical mass here." He did a quick search on the connecting flights and realized that there was only one that would get him into Vegas before the party. And it was the one flight on the schedule that was on time the least.

"Okay, look, we're gonna have to get creative here. Let me talk to Brian and see what we can do to get you to the casino in time. Just whatever you do, pray, chant, do a dance, blow real freaking hard to clear the clouds, whatever… DO NOT MISS THIS FLIGHT!" The laughter coming through the phone was awkward and he knew that they were both aware of how critical it was. "Yeah, I know, and I'll do everything I can to get you there. All right. Well, good luck…you're gonna need it."

Just as he hung up the phone the garage door began to open and he found his mother's car waiting on the other side. He backed up and waved her into the garage with a slightly nervous smile. The stress was beginning to get to him and he suddenly had a lot of respect for what Brian did for a living. He simply could not imagine setting up these kinds of events on a daily basis, and Lindsey's husband probably had four or five of them every single day.

As his mother stepped out of the car she asked, "Needed to yell at someone?" She nodded to the phone in his hand and smiled.

Slipping the phone into his pocket, he chuckled and took a step forward to help her. "Something like that. How'd it go at the state's attorney?"

"The Sheriff is still an enormous jackass." His mother rolled her eyes to show her disdain for the man, "But he's a jackass in a cage now. No more special visits according to the AG."

"I know Lilli'll be happy to hear that. I think she was afraid of killing the both of them if they came at her again." Stephanie pointed at some bags in the back seat and Michael went to retrieve them.

"That makes two of us. But it's all settled now, and I got two extra vacation days out of this nonsense. Since I've been spending so damn much of my vacation time dealing this crap, the AG told the county coroner to add them back." She took the first bag away from him, and he reluctantly allowed it, grabbing up the rest himself.

"Well, while you've been dealing with the jackasses, I've been dealing with the Keystone Catering and Reservations Cops." He bumped the car door closed with his hip and started walking to the house. "Lilli caught a misspelling issue at the bakery before it was too late, and Brian had some trouble with the rooms, but it's all settled now."

She grabbed the door and held it open for him to get through when she asked, "And the suite?"

Michael stopped cold and asked, "How'd you know about that?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and walked past him, "Oh please, like you can really keep something like that from me."

"Well, I _was_ doing a pretty good job… Who spoiled it?" Michael shook his head in disbelief and continued into the kitchen.

"The military intelligence specialist and the son of one." His mother always had an amazing knack for finding out about practically anything. And it would appear that she still had it.

"Foiled by the damn U.S. Air Force!" He was still shaking his head as he dropped the bags on the island.

"What did the Air Force ever do to you?" Geoffrey walked into the kitchen and peered over the top of the bags.

"You!" Geoffrey looked up with a guilty expression and went back and forth between Michael and his mother.

"What's the Air Force got to do with me? I won't even fly a kite." Geoffrey held up his hands in a mock gesture of surrender.

"You told my mother about _the suite_?" Michael gave him a coldly accusatory glare.

"No, I didn't… What suite?" Geoffrey was completely confused.

"Then what did you tell her?" Now Michael was confused.

Stephanie only shrugged, leaving Geoffrey to sort things out on his own. "Well, the only conversation I remember having with her, without you, was when you got a secure ship to shore call and she thought it was for me, and…" He turned to Michael and winced, "I'm sorry… I thought she knew when she handed me the phone and… Sorry." Geoffrey's head hung in shame, Michael realized that his mother apparently missed her real calling; as an interrogator.

"I give up, Mom… From now on, no more secrets. I promise." Michael's head was also hung in shame as he began to remove the groceries from the bag.

Stephanie took the eggs from him and turned to open the fridge when she said, "Well, if that's the case, then you should ask your Pop about the old townhouse." Michael and Geoffrey both froze with her statement. "I think the tenant is moving out at the end of the month."

The smile on her face as she turned around proved to the both of them that they were not as skilled at subterfuge as they once believed. Looking at each other for a clue about what to do next, Michael just shook his head and let it go. "Mom, I swear, I just didn't want to say anything until we knew for sure."

"Knew what?" Thomas walked into the kitchen and kissed his wife on the cheek before heading for the grocery bags.

"Oh, the boys were just about to tell me why they're moving to Vegas." Stephanie took the milk her husband handed to her and turned again for the fridge.

"Damn… I guess I owe you twenty, then?" Thomas handed her several bags of vegetables as they met again.

"Why?" Geoffrey asked.

Thomas winked and nudged his son when he said, "I figured you'd wait until we took you to the airport Monday before you finally spilled the beans. Your Mom bet me you'd slip up before the party."

Thomas folded up one of the bags and laid it on the counter before pulling the next one open. "And if you want something familiar, the tenants are moving out of the old townhouse at the end of the month. Otherwise, I can give you the name of our management company agent, and she can find you something better for you."

Geoffrey recovered quickly from the shock and went to work on the other groceries as he answered, "Well, I have some restrictions on my housing allowance, and since we're still paying for the condo in Georgetown, I have to keep things within a certain budget."

"I'm pretty sure my _CFO_ would be willing to work something very equitable out for you boys. Probably something on the order of Saturday dinners for the duration of the lease." Thomas winked at Geoffrey as he took the boxes of pasta from him.

"I couldn't let you do something like that. It wouldn't be right and-"

"Geoffrey, I understand what you're trying to say, but you need to understand that it isn't important to either of us." Stephanie laid a hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. "You just tell the management agent what your allowance is and she'll agree to it for the lease. Okay?"

Geoffrey recognized when he had lost a battle and the better part of his valor told him to accept her terms. He nodded, "Yes, Ma'am."

Stephanie gave him a gentle thwack on the end of his nose and whispered, "And that's your one for today."

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

Michael spent the better part of the afternoon and most of dinner fielding phone calls and coordinating airport transport. Thankfully for everyone, Geoffrey had been able to take the whole day away from his job to help out.

Stephanie enjoyed seeing the two interact and work off of each other. It made her very happy to know that her son had finally found someone to not only care about him, but also for him. In a lot of ways, she recognized many of the dynamics present in her relationship with Thomas in her son's relationship. She was not about to mention this to Michael, but the careful looks she had gotten from her husband since their arrival told her that she was not alone in that conclusion.

Greg and his brood had managed to finally get in, and just in time for dinner. Kirsten and Niko's wife Tally immediately dumped a double load of laundry into the washer after their airport adventures, but they were there and everything was fine. Tally was upstairs feeding the baby. The girls and Greggers were busy cleaning up the kitchen and making a sensational racket doing it. Greg and Brian were giving Geoffrey the full breakdown on his rental car. Thomas slipped out to go check on a patient, and she was sitting in her solarium straining to listen to the crickets her uncle had recently turned loose in there to combat some other pest on her flowers.

"There you are, Mom." Michael held open the vertical flaps that trapped the solarium's moisture inside as several women preceded him into her sanctuary.

"What's the big idea trying to get a little time to yourself? You think you're special?" Cath was the first to call her on the disappearing act.

"Yeah, well, you were all drinking coffee and I'm not allowed after noon. Apparently I keep someone else up too late if I have any caffeine past noon." Kirsten and Lindsey both laughed at her answer as they all took seats around the little table.

Kirsten gestured around the solarium and gushed, "I always forget just how beautiful it is out here. I can't get over how well this whole thing turned out."

Lindsey smiled and touched Michael's arm when she said, "The boys really outdid themselves on this one."

Michael leaned over and hugged his mother around the shoulders with his head right next to hers, "When you've got a Mom like this, you kind of have to go big, if you aren't going home."

Stephanie leaned her head into his and answered, "At least not for a long time."

Michael let go and sat down on the other side of his mother. "Yeah, yeah… Keep rubbing it in, why don't you."

Catherine shook her head. "Don't tease your mother like that, kid. She's just really happy to have you so close again." She waited until Michael blushed a little before she came in for the kill, "And where she can keep an eye on you."

Lindsey winked at him and added, "And where you can't get lost in the jungle again."

Kirsten laughed at the joke. "I never get tired of hearing that story."

Michael pouted just a little and crossed his arms over his chest, "I was not lost… I was just late getting to the checkpoint…by a few days."

"Because you were lost." Lilli walked into the solarium wearing her scrubs and smacked Michael in the back of the head. "That was one case where you really couldn't navigate your way out of a wet paper bag."

"Look who's talking, Miss I can confuse the GPS system in my car." Michael stood up from the last seat and offered it to his cousin.

"No thanks, Lancelot, I just stopped by to get the boss to sign a report." Lilli handed Stephanie the paperwork and a pen. As Stephanie looked through the report Lilli asked, "So, has my idiot brother made it in yet?"

"Ah, Jimmy left twenty minutes ago to pick them up at McCarran. I think they're staying with him and Emily tonight, at least." Michael relayed the facts as he knew them.

"Actually, Mom said they got a suite. With two wound up kids, and with Emily pregnant, Amanda didn't want to create too much of a disturbance." Stephanie held the report up and Lilli snatched the pen up from the table before liberating the report from her fingers. "And with that, I bid you all, good night. I've got at least ten hours of stiffs to get through before I can go home again."

As she walked out Stephanie called over her shoulder, "Bring in the on-call guy if it gets any worse."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lilli hollered back as she disappeared into the house.

Stephanie shook her head. "She's not gonna call him."

"More than likely," Catherine added. "And she'll probably work late without telling anyone, too." She winked at Michael when she delivered her final blow, "I can't imagine where she gets that."

With a comical waggle of her brow, Stephanie said, "Gotta be her mother."

After they all finished laughing at the joke, Kirsten spoke up and asked the all important question, "So, can we get a sneak peek at this gargantuan project you've been working on?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed, "You mean the project that I still need to finish?"

Catherine was shocked to hear that. "What do you mean it's not finished?"

Stephanie stood up and crossed the room to the cabinet in the back. "Well, there were a couple of pages I just hadn't gotten around to yet, and with everything going on, they kept being put on the back burner." She pulled a banker's box from the cabinet and tried to carry it over to the table.

Quickly getting up and rushing to Stephanie's side, Lindsey took the box from her. "Here, let me get that. You know you aren't supposed to carry anything heavy, old woman."

Rolling her eyes, Stephanie allowed the younger woman to take the box. "It's not heavy, and who are you calling old?"

"The tall chick with the gray in her hair and all those grandkids running around." Lindsey stuck her tongue out to punctuate her reply, which drew a quiet round of giggles from everyone else. She then reached around and smacked Michael in the back of the head, "And why didn't you stop her?"

"Ow." He rubbed at the back of his head. "Because I knew it wasn't heavy, since I was the one who put it there last time."

"Quit picking on, Mikey. He gets enough brain damage from Lilli." Stephanie pulled out a couple of loose pages and laid them out on the table in front of everyone. "Now, here's the wedding page and this is the page I did of the two of them. I just need to get them in the book with the rest."

"Oh my gosh, Steph." Kirsten's hand flew to her mouth with her exclamation, "These are gorgeous."

Catherine smirked a little and pointed at the photo of Sara and Gil at the bottom of the page. "I absolutely love that picture of them. Even if it isn't current, that's how I always think of them now."

"Yeah, Jimmy's been trying to get them to sit for another one ever since, but Uncle Gil is very resistant." Stephanie shook her head.

"How in the world did you get that picture of them laying down?" Lindsey pointed out the photo on the left.

"That would be my fault, I think." The deep baritone coming from the doorway instantly got everyone's attention.

"Max!" Stephanie jumped to her feet to meet the young man with big hug. "Where'd you come from?"

He turned and pointed over his shoulder, "Jimmy's car in the driveway." His quip earned him a slap on the arm. "Sorry, couldn't resist." He glanced over at the table to see the picture in question. "Is that the one I took up at the cabin one summer?"

"One and the same. I thought your Dad was gonna skin you alive." Stephanie shook her head at the man grinning before her.

"Yeah, swiped Jimmy's new camera and crawled into the room guerilla style, then I quick snapped the camera before they knew what happened." Max recounted the afternoon with a glint in his eye.

"But ask him what happened after that." Stephanie nodded at Michael behind her.

"I spent the next two days in solitary, for conduct unbecoming, and being a general sneak. Mom said if I ever did anything like that again, she'd send me to live with Aunt Cath for the summer." Max winked at his cousin as he finished his tale.

"Excuse me?" Catherine's eyebrow was practically on top of her head.

"Oh, hey, Aunt Cath. Didn't see you…" Max nodded playfully at Catherine.

"So, what are you doing here tonight?" Stephanie finally asked.

"Well, we missed dinner…" he held up a reinforced envelope. "But I didn't want to wait to give you this."

"Oh thank God! She got it done?" Stephanie took the envelope and kissed Max on the cheek.

"Yeah, got it done last night and sealed it up. Mandy didn't want to take any chances with the Chaos Kids, so I carried it in my computer case." Max checked his watch as Stephanie started to peek inside the envelope. "So, if everything's good, I gotta get back to the car before the kids decide to beat Uncle Jimmy over the head with something."

"Oh, yeah, sure, sweetie." Stephanie set the envelope down and gave him another hug. "Where are you staying tonight?"

"Um, well, with Em hitting the tired and battered stage, Mandy and I didn't want to put any more pressure on them. And Mom and Dad just aren't prepared for the full-time Tomminator. So, Mandy had Brian find us a room in that place out by Mom and Dad's. It's a suite, so we can put the kids down and still be able to breathe without waking them up. Plus, I am sort of working through this trip."

"What's up?" Catherine asked.

"Um, I've got this huge grant proposal I have to finish writing and it has to be submitted on Tuesday. Otherwise, my research will come to a screeching halt. And that's just not cool, even in physics." Max winked at his cousin again with his joke.

"Mom…" Michael got up from his seat and walked to his cousin. "I'll walk Max out so I can get the game plan sorted out with Jimmy. You get back to showing off your scrapbook stuff." And in a flash they were out the door, leaving Stephanie with her female guests.

Shaking her head, she returned to the box as Lindsey asked, "He's up to something, isn't he?"

Catherine chuffed at her daughter's question, "When isn't he?" Her remark sent the room into a fit of laughter.

When they returned to themselves, they began to inspect the pages again. "Oh my God! Stephanie, where'd you get this picture of me and Greg?"

"You mean…your wedding photo?" Stephanie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If you could call it that. Oh wow! I mean, really, I didn't even remember we'd gotten any pictures taken." Kirsten was still pouring over the small snapshot when her oldest daughter walked into the solarium.

"What're looking at, Mom?" Birget quickly moved in behind her mother's chair. "Oh My God! Is that you and Dad?"

Kirsten shook her head as she reached up to hold the hand Birget laid on her shoulder. "I'm afraid so, kid."

"What on earth are you wearing?"

"Your Dad got an invitation to some fashion line launch, and they dressed us, too. It was really kind of silly." Kirsten was giggling at the memories coming back to her with the photo.

"Birget, honey, you know your Mom and Dad never did anything traditionally, and that included getting married." Stephanie offered her own synopsis of the Sanders' unlikely union.

"That's when you got married?!" Birget was floored by the revelation.

"Actually, that's the guy who witnessed it. So, you're looking at the whole wedding party." Kirsten shook her head in embarrassment at the admission.

"No Way! Seriously?"

"I'm afraid so… Which is why there will not be any kind of passing down of a wedding dress for us, kid. I blew out those leather pants years ago, but I think the scarf is in a box somewhere if you want that." Kirsten laughed at the ridiculousness of the whole notion.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Mom. I'm wearing a dress if I ever bother getting married." Birget looked over the rest of the page and found something of interest. "Where was that one taken, Aunt Cath?"

Catherine put her glasses on with the question and looked for the picture in question. "Oh wow." The emotion in her voice was evident upon seeing the picture of her and Warrick on their wedding day. "Well, that was taken at the Stratosphere, right after we signed the marriage license." She turned to her daughter and asked, "You took that one, didn't you, Linds?"

"Yup, sure did." Lindsey's face also betrayed the emotion seeing that image brought out. "One of the best days of my life, and the sign of the end."

Stephanie was confused and asked, "What end?"

Lindsey smiled big to keep back the tears, "That was the day he stopped just being 'Rick, and became my Dad." It was Catherine's turn to fight back the tears when Lindsey went on to explain. "He was always a good friend, even before he and Mom got together, finally. But it was different once they were married. It ended all the questions I had, and ended any confusion for me. It was like I knew he really wasn't going anywhere after that, and all that stuff he was always doing for me meant a lot more. Most people just end up with kids, but I knew he was there because he wanted to be. And that made him my Dad."

Kirsten gave Catherine a chance to recover when she spoke up. "I always wondered how all that worked out, but I guess I just never thought to ask. Sounds like you had a pretty special relationship, Lindsey."

"Yeah, we did." She smiled and winked at her mother before saying, "When I was pregnant the first time, he made me promise there wouldn't be anymore duplicate names. He said it was confusing enough in this family. Brian is Scottish, so I had been looking through a book on Gaelic names when I came across the name Duncan and I knew it was perfect."

Birget was the first to ask the question, "Why's that?

"Well, in Gaelic it loosely means 'dark warrior,' but the literal translation is 'brown fighter.'" Lindsey's face showed the same devilish grin she had the day she told her parents what her son's name was.

"When translated means…Lindsey has interpreted the law in her own way for a long time." Stephanie slipped in with her own jibe.

Catherine, having finally recovered her wits, added, "The kid was born to be a lawyer."

Seeing the need to change the topic of conversation, Lindsey asked, "So, what did Max bring in, anyway?"

"Oh!" Stephanie exclaimed as she looked around the table for the envelope again. "Amanda put together a page of the grandchildren. 'Grampa's Little Devils.'"

Michael walked back into the room just as Stephanie realized the envelope was missing. "Michael, did you see where I put that envelope Max dropped off?"

"Oh yeah, I took it with me." Michael tried to play it off as best he could.

"Why on earth would you do that?" Catherine was quick to pick up on that one.

"Um, well, Max didn't have all the pictures Amanda wanted to use, and I found them in my stash, so I told her I'd finish it up for her." The suspicious faces he found around the table forced him to work fast in order to convince them he was sincere. "Max didn't realize it wasn't done. Amanda and I were talking about it, and he didn't know. And, I put it in the office so I can finish up both pages tonight."

Lindsey shook her head in disgust. "I still say you're up to something."

Michael leaned down and kissed his former babysitter's head before he said, "Since the day I was born."


	15. Part 15: And many more!

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")

_**A/N:**_ Here it is.... The FINAL Chapter in the Discovery Series. There are not words available to me to describe how much I have gotten from writing within this little universe. The writing, the learning, the friendships, the interaction with the readers, the community I found... It has given me so much and I am only left with two very paltry words. Thank You.

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

At eighty years old, he was fairly certain he should be allowed to choose his own clothes, but there he was, slowly buttoning up a fresh dress shirt and trying to decide which tie would be considered acceptable to his wife and goddaughter. Gil Grissom was a man of simple tastes in his later years, and the thought of wearing a coat and tie was enough to make him a little more than grumpy. After all, this was his birthday party, and he was pretty sure it was supposed to be about what he wanted for at least this one day every year.

Of course, there was also the other side of that coin. If he wore the coat and tie and looked dashing for his wife, he would get to see that smile of hers. It was a smile that could make even the coldest of nights warm and bright. He really did love to see Sara smile, especially when it was because of him.

He grabbed his dark blue tie with the black paisley which could only be seen when the light hit it just right. Sara really liked that tie, and his daughter had given it to him, so it also meant a lot to her. Pleasing two women at the same time with nothing more than a simple wardrobe choice seemed like an awfully good way to start the night.

Most of his life had revolved around making one woman or another happy; his mother, various girlfriends, his goddaughter, his co-workers, his wife, his daughter, and now his granddaughter. They each held his attention and a piece of his heart. For a man who was once considered a confirmed bachelor, women always seemed to play an enormous role in his life.

He still remembered the day when they placed his newborn daughter in his arms. Lillian Marie Grissom stopped crying the very moment he started talking to her. It felt as though she immediately recognized his voice and his calming tone made her feel safe in his arms. From that moment forward, he and his daughter shared a very special relationship.

Lifting up the collar of his shirt, Gil then looped the tie over his head and thought about his daughter. Lillian had been in an uncommonly sour mood of late, and he looked for anything he could to make her smile. He knew she was under a certain amount of strain at work, due to their being short-handed once again, but he had a sneaking suspicion it went far deeper than that.

He also knew that if he asked her about what was troubling her, she would put on her best smile and tell him everything was fine. However, if he bided his time, and simply made himself available to her, eventually she would let him into her confidence. Not to mention the fact he was fairly certain either her mother, or her favorite confidant, Stephanie, was on the inside; as was normally the custom.

Things were much simpler with his son Max. The boy did not possess a single ounce of subterfuge in his entire body. There were very few instances over the course of his lifetime in which Max even attempted to hide something, because he was immediately given up by the mischievous glint in his eye and the sneaky smile on his face. No, the only time he ever had to worry about Max was when he and James were being led astray by the twins, or Lillian, or both.

When he began to fumble with the knot on his tie, his fingers stiff with age and too many years of handling delicate specimens, he grunted in frustration. And then, like a wisp of wind, Sara was right there behind him slipping her long arms under his to help. "Maybe you've forgotten how one of these things works. It has been a while."

"It has, but I have not forgotten." He reached in and squeezed her hand for a brief moment as he grinned. "The knowledge is there, but the fingers are stubborn."

"Yes, well… We're all learning that little lesson lately, aren't we?" With her statement he tried to look down at her leg, but she pulled him back up into her chest. "Hold still."

"Are you still having trouble?" He raised an eyebrow at her as he asked her reflection in the mirror.

"It's a little stiff, but the swelling is gone. I just need to watch out for those invisible speed bumps a little better." Sara smirked at him from behind his head, but he was still a little worried since her fall.

Sara had taken a tumble in the park a few weeks before and her ankle had been giving her trouble ever since. After a week of it being swollen, he finally convinced her to see the doctor. It turned out only to be a bad sprain, but the doctor put her in an air-cast and told Sara to take it easy for a few weeks. And if the pain and or swelling persisted, she was to come right back to see him.

The air-cast lasted for less than a week even though she was still favoring the ankle, and she returned to her evening walks with Stephanie in less than two. Being married to a stubborn woman was often a challenge, and with Sara that was doubly true.

He tried to be casual with his reminder, "Well, anytime you're ready to go back to the doctor's offi-"

"I do not need to have some snot-nosed kid who's pretending to be a doctor telling me to sit in my rocker and leave the parks to the younger, more able bodied crowd." He tried to shake his head as she railed against the young doctor, whose only sin was suggesting that someone approaching her sixty-fifth birthday should probably be trying to take it easy a little more. "I know full well what I am and am not capable of doing."

"Sara, the doctor said no such thing. He merely told you that at your age you were not going to heal the way you used to with something like this and you needed to take it easy to help the process." He lifted his brow just a little with the end of his statement.

She slowly pulled the bulk of the tie through the last loop and tightened until it was perfect before she finally answered, "Fine… But he was still a snot-nosed kid."

"I'll give you that." He squeezed her hand again and nodded at the quality of her knot. "And thank you. I'm pretty sure this is fine enough to pass inspection."

Sara chuckled, "Well, I hope so, since Steph's the one who taught me how to do this."

"Taught you how to do what?" Her hair tied loosely behind her head, and wearing a tank top with a pair of gym shorts, their daughter Lillian stood in the doorway of the bathroom behind them.

"Funny, I don't remember hearing the doorbell…" He turned to Sara and asked, "I'm not going deaf, am I?"

"Thanks a lot, Dad." Lillian shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Sara leaned on the back of his shoulders and said, "Actually, she came here after work because I took her dress to the cleaners with mine." He nodded his understanding.

"And I was late getting out of work, so Mom wouldn't let me go home. Plus this way I could drive you guys to the party since her ankle is still bothering her." Lillian showed the both of them just whose daughter she was with her final words in the topic. "Because she still won't wear the air-cast like a stubborn old woman."

The glare on Sara's face almost made him laugh, but he managed to keep it in. "Is there a schedule somewhere, so you two can take turns badgering me about that stupid cast?"

He managed to avoid laughing until Lillian responded. "Yeah, it's on the side of the fridge, under the urgent care magnet, so we can see whose turn it is to call when you fall again, since you aren't wearing the cast."

As he and Lillian laughed uncontrollably, Sara shook her head in disgust. Once they started to quiet down, Sara asked, "Was there a reason you came in here? You know, other than to torment me?"

Slowly coming back to herself, Lillian stopped laughing long enough to answer her mother. "Oh, yeah… There wasn't any makeup in my emergency bag. Can I borrow your travel stuff so I can finish getting ready?"

Sara shook her head, "No, because I lost it on my last flight. I'm already done, so you can just take what you need from my dressing table."

Leaving him to finish up, they both walked away from the bathroom chattering about makeup. "Do you have any of that lipstick in that color I liked so much…what was it called?"

"It was one of the berry ones, I think. I just don't remember which one." Eventually their words were nothing more than background noise as he stood in front of the mirror.

Eighty years of living was staring back at him from his reflection. Eighty years spent in the pursuit of knowledge and truth. He wondered, as he noticed the sun spots on his forehead, if it was all really worth the trouble.

The mistakes made in the first fifty years of his life still haunted him, and he could only hope that the way he spent the last thirty made up for it. As he listened to the women in the next room chatter and giggle with each other, he realized that he had done at least two or three things right to make up for all those wasted years.

After much feminine discussion about dresses and makeup and whether Lillian should wear her hair up or down (down was the decision, as Sara's hair was up and Lillian would rather avoid the twin comments for one night), they were ready to head over to the hotel for the party.

He was actually quite relieved to hear that Lillian would be driving. The party would no doubt run late, and neither he, nor his wife, was used to late hours anymore.

The drive over was pleasant enough, even though Lillian fought to make Sara prop her leg up in the backseat for the duration of their drive. They talked about Michael and Geoffrey moving to Las Vegas and how glad they all were to have Michael home. They discussed the upcoming race for a new sheriff in Clark County, along with an update on Lillian's recent altercation with the current sheriff. Conversations with his daughter were always a rewarding experience for him, but seeing her come into her own as an adult and a professional was an especially gratifying moment as a father.

Thinking about fatherhood reminded him of his other child. "Does anyone want to lay odds on Max arriving on time tonight?"

Sara was the first to answer, "Sucker's bet." Max had brought the children by late in the morning to take the two of them out for brunch. He wanted to let Amanda get a little extra sleep, so he left her at the hotel and tried to wrangle the children on his own. "It probably took him two hours just to get Tommy down from the ceiling after those chocolate chip pancakes."

"He let Tommy have chocolate?!" Lillian's shock was more than evident in her tone of voice. "Didn't he learn his lesson after last Christmas? That boy shouldn't even be allowed to smell chocolate."

Grissom smiled and nodded. He too had been forced to learn things the hard way. "Sad fact of fatherhood, I'm afraid. We are so swept away by the notion of making our children happy, that we often forget the consequences of our actions." Sara chuckled from the backseat, having been witness to several of his similar mistakes over the years. "Case in point: allowing you and the twins to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl at the boardwalk."

Lillian groaned at the reminder. "Oh God! I had almost forgotten about that."

"The three of you begged and pleaded with Thomas and I to let you go, swearing you'd never tell your mothers. And you had no idea why they wouldn't let you ride the last time, but you really, _really_ wanted to ride it." Sara had moved from chuckling to full on laughter as he recounted the _Tale of the Tilt-A-Whirl_, as it had come to be known in the family. "And we finally relented, not ever dreaming there was a very good reason for your mothers to refuse such a thing."

"Watching you guys try to sneak three kids, still heaving from the nausea, into that beach house was probably the funniest thing I had ever seen." Sara was practically in hysterics when she said, "Twenty years after the fact and I'm still laughing."

"Thanks, Mom. I'm glad that my pain and misery can bring you so much joy." Despite the sullen expression on his daughter's face, Gil still loved telling that story. Hearing Sara's delighted and unrestrained laughter could be the highpoint of any day.

"Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime at all." Sara was still giggling at the memory as she leaned forward and put a hand on Lillian's shoulder. "These are the little rewards we get for surviving your childhood in one piece."

Gil turned to see the smiles on both of their faces; Sara's full of mirth and joy, Lillian's tinted with embarrassment and a bit of wistfulness. Moments such as these were the reason he was eternally grateful that he finally accepted his humanity and brought love into his life. His life was infinitely richer with Sara, and all that their relationship had brought with it.

"So, if we're done picking on me for the evening…" Lillian waited for her mother's laughter to die down before she continued. "I just wanted to say, that I know parties aren't your thing, Daddy, but Mom and Steph and Michael really went all out to make this special for you. So, please, try not to look too bored, and for God's sake! Do _Not_ fall asleep, okay?"

"Honey, knowing Stephanie as I do, there is no possible way that I am going to have even two seconds to think about falling asleep." Gil pushed the hair behind Lillian's ear, the same as he had done since she was a small child, and he smiled. "And knowing that you and Michael were involved, as well, fills me with great anxiety. I can only begin to imagine what horrifying surprises the two of you have cooked up."

He watched as Lillian's shoulder blades squeezed together in the back, a tell she had inherited from her mother, and he knew something was indeed up. "Why would you think something like that, Daddy? We're both as pure as the driven snow."

Sara was unable to contain the "Ha!" that escaped her throat at Lillian's assertion.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mom." Lillian rolled her eyes, and Gil watched her calm façade fall right into place (a trait she inherited from him, to be certain).

"Sorry, sweetheart, but that was more than I could handle. You and Michael have been up to _something_ practically since the day you met." Sara voiced the truth each person in their family had accepted many years ago. Michael and Patrick may have been twins, but Lillian fit in there so perfectly, they invented the evil trio.

"Whatever… Just be nice tonight. A lot of people have gone to a lot of trouble to make this special for you, Daddy. So, no anti-social, curmudgeon professor routine tonight, okay?" Lillian brought the car to a stop in front of the hotel as she turned to her father to get a confirmation.

Gil nodded obediently and said, "Yes, dear."

Lillian turned around to her mother and asked, "Does that bother you like this every time he says that?"

Sara shrugged and nodded, "Pretty much."

Shaking their heads, Lillian and Sara unbuckled their seatbelts and got ready to exit the car as three valets opened the doors to Lillian's car. "Welcome to the Rampart," they all said in unison.

Sara took the hand offered to her and gently exited the vehicle, her long skirt falling down along her lithe legs in a cascade of silk. After watching the vision he was honored to call his wife, Gil turned and acknowledged the young man holding open his car door. As he reached into his pocket to slip the boy a tip, Lindsey's husband Brian came walking into view.

"Kids, you take very good care of Dr. Grissom's car, or you'll be scrubbing blacktops by morning." The valets all smiled, instantly knowing the manager of the hotel was only kidding. He stood before Gil and proceeded to shake his hand. "Dr. Grissom, I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I was when Stephanie asked us to host your party."

"Brian, you've been married to Lindsey for how many years? I think it's safe for you to call me Gil now." Gil enjoyed the younger man's gesture of respect, but he found it just a little disconcerting at the same time.

"Sorry about that, Sir. But the Old Man was pretty strict when it came to how I was supposed to address certain people, and I just can't seem to break the habit." Brian left him to meet Sara and Lillian at the curb, offering his arm to Sara as she gingerly stepped up to the sidewalk. "And then there's my wife to consider," he called over his shoulder before giving Sara his full attention. "Good to see you again, Mrs. Grissom."

"Thank you, Brian. We'll be sure to give a glowing report to Lindsey." Sara gave him a gentle wink as soon as she was safely on the sidewalk.

"Yeah, but she's still not going to cut you any slack after that skydiving stunt." Lillian winked at her father as she stepped between her parents.

Brian hung his head as he nodded, "Yeah, I'll probably be paying for that one for a long time to come. But at least Duncan and I had a good time doing it, for all the hell we've taken since then."

Gil put an understanding hand on the man's shoulder as he said, "We were just discussing the perils of fatherhood on the way over here. I feel your pain."

With a smile on his face, Brian escorted the three of them through the lobby of the Rampart, and into the entry for the Braun Ballroom. "I still have a few things to deal with before I can join you all, but Stephanie told me to have you guys head right in."

"Thank you, Brian." Gil shook his hand again and the younger man left to tend to his business. As Gil watched him walk away he thought to himself that Sam was obviously a very insightful businessman, and a caring grandfather. To have seen the potential for the business in someone as young as Brian at the time, and to know exactly what his granddaughter saw in him; Sam truly was a genius in his own right.

He turned to his wife and daughter as he asked, "Well, shall we, ladies?" Gesturing for the door, he did the best impersonation of a debonair man he could muster and smiled.

Sara immediately moved to his side and took his arm, "I'd be delighted." Her smile was bright, but subdued, and he knew the move had worked. Even at eighty years old, he still knew how to make her happy.

Lillian shook her head in mock revulsion and opened the door for her parents, "Good grief, are we gonna have to get you two a room?"

As they walked past their oldest child, Sara shot back, "The night's still young, and you just never know."

Gil felt immense pride filling his chest as they walked proudly into the ballroom, their daughter still making disgusted noises behind them.

Upon entering the room, they found Max and Amanda working with James and Emily as they tried to keep their children from knocking over one of the food displays, while Patrick had a twin on each hip, and a little girl firmly gripped around his ankle, doing a convincing rendition of the Frankenstein monster to the sound of the children's delighted giggles. Stephanie was barking orders to the catering staff, while Bethie was trying desperately to finish braiding her mother's hair as she moved about. Thomas was on the phone near the door and nodded at them as they passed, and the whole scene looked and felt strangely familiar to him.

Chaos was his constant companion, no matter how much he tried to find order and peace. Sara once told him that order and peace were boring, and it was chaos and mayhem that kept the world spinning. Through nearly thirty years together, he learned the truth and wisdom of those words.

When Stephanie noticed them crossing the floor to the chorus of hellos as they passed, she made her way to them in a flourish. "Oh good! You got him here early after all."

"We'd have been here sooner, but there was considerable discussion about hair that preceded our departure." Gil accepted the hug from his goddaughter when she reached for him.

"Well, as you can see…" Looking back at her daughter directly behind her, "We're still having that discussion here." Stephanie turned back and asked, "Are you done, yet?"

Bethie gave her a very icy glare and then stuck her tongue out at her mother. Gil laughed, remembering a similar reaction from the older of the two, in what felt like only yesterday. "Like mother, like daughter." Bethie blushed at his remark and hurried off to help her brother with the kids.

Pointing at Stephanie, Lillian said, "If she turns into you any more than she already has, I'm calling foul on the cloning experiment."

Lillian kissed her father on the cheek and excused herself as Stephanie laughed. "I need to make a phone call. I'll be right back."

"She's not on call, is she?" Looking to Stephanie for confirmation, Gil was still a little concerned with his daughter's mood.

"Not at all. David even scheduled her off for the next couple nights." Stephanie frowned at the idea and then looked all around the room. "Well, it looks like almost everyone is here. Give me five more minutes and I'll be ready."

Before he had a chance to ask for what, she was halfway across the room. "What's that all about?"

Sara grinned and quickly put him at ease. "Steph didn't want to turn your party into a huge scene, so she wanted the family to get together before everyone else arrives."

"Everyone else? I thought this was just family and friends." His whitened brow furrowed with this disclosure. "What has she done?"

Lillian stopped him from getting too ornery. "Don't get your boxers in a bunch, Daddy. I don't think you realize just how many friends you've got. When Steph started getting RSVP's she got a pretty good idea that this thing was gonna be huge, so she had a lot of last minute adjusting to do."

"How huge?" Even Sara was starting to sound a little concerned.

From the side door, Daniel hollered, "Mom! The caterers want to know if they can start setting up the other buffet tables?"

As Stephanie hollered back, "Yeah, just tell them not to create a traffic jam in the middle," Gil finally understood why they were in such a big room.

Lillian was rescued from breaking the bad news to her father by the arrival of Catherine and her granddaughter Lily, both dressed in elegant white silk outfits, each suited to their generation. Catherine was all business, with an ample amount of femininity, while Lily's dress was frilly and filled with whimsy.

Catherine walked up to Gil's side and gracefully touched the back of his arm as she asked, "So, Gil, are you ready to be social with a couple hundred of your closest friends?"

The outrageously horrified looks on both Sara's and Gil's faces told them exactly how the pair felt about the news. Lillian immediately called out to her brother, "**Max!** Block the door! Mom and Dad are about to make a run for it!"

"DAMNIT! I wanted to be there when you broke the news," Max exclaimed.

Just as his wife was trying to admonish him for his outburst, Sera-Beth squealed, "Damnit!" and giggled in her little girl voice.

Amanda shook her head and rolled her eyes before correcting her daughter by saying, "Baby, that's not a nice word, and Daddy's not going to use it again. Are we, Daddy?"

They were immediately distracted from the scene with Max as Stephanie hurried over to them saying, "Now, Uncle Gil. I swear, it's not gonna be out of control, or too overwhelming."

With a far too calm voice, he asked, "How many people?"

"I've gotten everything taken care of with the hotel and they've got babysitters set up for the kids and everything." Stephanie continued to rattle on, "You won't have to make a speech, or-"

Through his blatantly clenched teeth, he asked again, "How…many?"

Stephanie cringed, hoping he was not about to walk out of the ballroom, as she revealed the number. "A hundred and ninety, or so… Give or take."

He closed his eyes and mentally counted to ten as Sara held a hand to her mouth, covering her surprise. "How many, Stephanie?"

"Two hundred and eleven…if everyone shows up."

Gil and Sara stood before them completely dumbfounded. Stephanie was waiting on pins and needles for their reaction. But it was all for naught when Catherine started laughing hysterically.

Stephanie, scared for her life, angrily told Catherine, "This isn't funny, Cath."

Through her laughter, and the tears streaming down her face, Catherine asked, "Please, just tell me you've got cake for this thing?"

"Of course we have cake." Stephanie was at a loss over Catherine's reaction.

"Perfect! Then Warrick owes me a hundred bucks." She struggled to get her laughter under control as she draped an arm over Gil's shoulder. "He said you once told him that there'd never be any pomp or circumstance for you, because you'd just be gone one day." Sara suddenly looked like she was about to start laughing as Catherine continued to explain. "I won the first bet when you officially retired, so we made it double or nothing on it ever happening again. And now, he owes me a hundred bucks."

"I'll cover that bet." Nick and R.J. appeared next to Catherine. Nick reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. "'Cause I bet him they'd never have kids," he nodded to Lillian and winked, before turning to look at R.J., "and that I'd never get married." He smiled at his wife and said, "And quite obviously, I lost."

He handed her a crisp one hundred dollar bill and gave Catherine a kiss on the cheek. "Congratulations, Cath. I don't think I ever won a single bet with ole 'Rick, in all our years, but you seem to have won 'em all."

"Has he been drinking?" Catherine blushed lightly as she directed her question to R.J.

"Met up with 'His Boys' at the bar on the way in. So, yeah, he's already had a couple." R.J. rolled her eyes with the wide smile Nick gave her as she answered Catherine's question. "He's feeling just fine right now."

Gil, never one to be distracted when something is set in his mind, brought the topic back to the guest list. "Stephanie who is going to be here, and why are there so many?"

She cringed, because Stephanie knew full well that no amount of distraction would work now. "It's co-workers, colleagues, former students… All people you have known and that have been contacting me for the last six weeks so they could come here and pay their respects on your birthday." She looked at the door as Greg and his crew came into the room. "That's exactly why I set it up so we could have a nice little family thing before Brian lets the party guests into the ballroom."

Max, his suit in disarray with Sera-Beth riding atop his shoulders, leaned in and tried to offer some assistance. "Dad, it's not like these people are strangers. Hell, half my department wanted to come to this thing, if just to get a look at the legend. But Aunt Steph has done an awesome job of keeping it as small as possible. Besides, do you really want to celebrate eighty years on this rock by sitting at home in the library reading Thoreau for the fiftieth time?"

That time Sara did let go with a laugh. It would appear that their son knew him better than he ever imagined. "He's got a point, honey."

Lillian finally found a voice again when she said, "And Daddy, you know what Papa Jim would say about it."

That broke him. Because he knew full well if Jim Brass was there, he would be laughing the hardest over his reaction and telling him, _"It's party, not a funeral, Gil."_

Then, in unison, everyone around him finished his thought out loud,"Suck it up and smile."

Greg walked up to their circle as everyone broke into a comfortable round of laughter for the first time since their arrival. "What's so funny?"

Nick squinted at him and then said, "Well, I'd say it was your hair cut…but you haven't got enough left to make those jokes anymore."

Shaking his head, Greg chuckled at Nick's good natured ribbing. "You need to get some new material, cowboy. Maybe you should hire a writer?"

Before the scene could degrade any further, Jimmy and the others began to gather around them as Thomas said, "I think we need to get this show on the road. Lindsey just came in the front door, and she says there's already people showing up left and right. And the valet is backed up, or it would be worse."

Stephanie immediately snapped back into hostess mode and hollered for everyone to come her way. Thomas showed Gil and Sara to the seats his wife had set up for them and watched as their hodge-podge family gathered together.

Lindsey and Duncan were the last to make their way into the ballroom, doing their best to usher in Neeley and her partner Laney, along with their teenage son, Andy.

Stephanie opened a gap in their impromptu circle, leading Geoffrey, who was carrying a large, flat box in one arm and Micah in the other. She motioned for him to leave the box in front of Gil and then he took a seat, moving Micah to his lap with a swiftness that showed his comfort around children.

Gil smiled and was indeed happy to see the newest member of their family finding his place so quickly. He looked around at the assembled faces to find the one who belonged with him and came up empty. With a frown he asked, "Shouldn't we wait for Michael?"

Stephanie also scanned the room, trying to find her prodigal son. "Oh, where'd he get off to?"

Very self-consciously, Geoffrey cleared his throat and tried to explain the absence of his partner. "He ah, had to deal with some emergency thing, with um, Brian." If anyone there had known Geoffrey better, they would have easily recognized just how painful each of those words was for him. Gil may not have known him long, or well, but he could sense an awkward moment just as well as anyone else and he merely nodded at the young man. "He said he'd, ah, be here for the party."

Several bewildered looks were shared around the room, but Stephanie quickly moved in to defuse the situation. She nodded at James, who passed Bridget off to his brother Daniel, and brought up the infamous video recorder to capture the whole scene.

Giving the thumbs up to his mother, she began, "Uncle Gil, we didn't want this to turn into a big scene, so we all got here early to minimize the drama. Every member of this family has pulled together to make today very special for you."

"Me too, Grandpa!" Tommy was quick to interject, followed quickly by his aunt playfully clamping a hand down over his mouth.

"Yes, Tommy helped, too. All of the kids helped in some way…" She stopped long enough to hush Patrick's twins as she acknowledged all of their efforts. "And for an eightieth birthday, there's just really nothing left that you need, that any of us could get for you in any store. So, your very kind and generous wife brought an intriguing proposition to the whole lot of us. And what you have there before you is eighty years worth of family, love and devotion. We hope you will enjoy it for the rest of your years, for which we all wish you so very many more. Happy Birthday, Uncle Gil."

All around the assembled group, he heard the resounding chorus of well-wishes, with a generous smattering of Uncle Gil's, Daddy's, Grandpa's and Grissom's thrown about in random order. It was a lot to take in all at once and he felt his heart swelling with such joy for these wonderful people who shared their lives with him every day.

Yes, this was a special day, but not because of his birth. It was special because it showed him the true beauty of love, in the many and varied faces gathered around him. He was a blessed man, and their smiling faces spelled it out to him in crystal clarity.

Emotion heavy in his voice, Gil spoke to his family. "I don't need for anything, and most definitely not gifts. I have all the gifts any man could ever hope for right here in this room. I have my health… I have my heart…" He squeezed Sara's hand in his as he looked into her tear filled eyes. "I have my children." He looked into the bright smiling faces of those two beautiful manifestations of his love for Sara. "I have my grandchildren." He smiled at the giggles from Sera-Beth and Tommy upon mentioning them. "I have my family." Stephanie and Thomas leaned in to one another as they returned his look of admiration. "And I have friends who have so enriched my life, they have become a large part of my family." The entire assemblage was smiling with his words.

"I should be the one bestowing gifts upon all of you, for everything you have given to me over these many years. I have been blessed to know each and every one of you, and I am doubly blessed to have also known your love." He took a deep breath and struggled to keep his voice from faltering under the weight of such profound emotion.

"Thank you all, for all that you do and everything that you are, to me, and within this astounding family. You are the reason I am able to celebrate eighty years on this rock…as my son puts it. Eighty years is a long time, and I have seen many things in my lifetime. But these past thirty years, sharing my life with all of you has given me a glimpse of what I believe is true immortality. True immortality comes from the lives you've touched along the way. And if this is just a small percentage of the whole, then I truly will live forever." When he was done, he looked out into the faces of his loved ones and knew this to be true. Reflected back at him was the love he freely gave to all of them. And it was a moment in time he would treasure forever.

His whole body shuddered as he drew in another deep cleansing breath. "So, what's in the box?" With that question, everyone was given leave to laugh. Their laughter was colored by the joy they felt, and it helped them all to let go of the emotion, allowing it to swirl about them in a blanket of love for everyone to share.

Gil carefully removed the bow from around the box and pushed it to the side before attempting to lift the lid on the box. As the lid rose from the box, his nostrils were filled with the scent of freshly tanned leather, and he was rewarded for his olfactory skills as the lid was removed from the box. A beautifully leather bound scrapbook laid before him. He ran his fingers over the cover and felt the supple grain of the leather beneath the tips.

The raised block at the bottom of the cover gave the impression of dignity and character for the book, making him feel as though as he was about to discover an ancient treasure trove of knowledge. And inscribed with gold letters in the center of the raised block was the Latin word Jubilaeum. Jubilation was exactly what he was feeling as his fingers skirted along the leather.

"You once told me that truly beautiful books should only be bound in leather, so that every time you opened the covers, it was like a religious experience, involving all of the senses at once. I found an Italian bookbinder who holds the same opinion." Sara spoke softly from his side as he marveled at the gorgeous workmanship in front of him.

"Open it up, Dad." Max was obviously anxious to see his father's reaction to the rest of the gift.

He spread his fingers out until they gripped the edge of the cover and then he paused, "I'm warning you now…if this is some elaborate prank to pay me back for letting the kids play with snakes when they were younger, I'm going to hold it over all of your heads for another eighty years." The whole room laughed as he squeezed his eyes shut in mock terror of a potential practical joke.

Gil was forced to open his eyes as everyone gasped at the sight of the first page. Looking down at the book, still carefully sitting inside the box, Gil saw it.

"For those who have gone before…" he read along with the title on the beautifully crafted page, "we offer you love and our memories." Any chance he had at making it out of this party without tears was lost as he peered down into the faces of his closest friends, so dearly departed from his life.

He tried to reach for the handkerchief in his right pocket, but found Sara already pulling it out for herself. When he tried to locate his second, Thomas politely slipped him one of his as Sara cried, "Oh, Stephanie, I never imagined it would be this…beautiful."

Lillian quietly moved to stand behind her mother, offering a bit of support as she stared down into the faces never to be forgotten in her family. "It's perfect. Just…perfect."

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Gil reverently touched first Warrick's and then Jim's pictures, almost as though he was saying a prayer with his touch. "This is more than I could have ever imagined. It's…" He looked up into his daughter's glassy eyes and nodded his head. "It's perfect."

Not wanting to be separate from the experience any longer, Gil carefully removed the book from the box and laid it in his lap. With one calming breath, he closed his eyes and turned the page.

One after another, each page showing him another aspect of his life in pictures, delighting his very soul, he made his way slowly through the book. As he started to flip the pages, the room was filled with hushed whispers and something else that was vaguely familiar. When he turned to the next pages, showing him as he was when he was a young man, he recognized the sound of a slide presentation clicking over.

Gil turned his head and discovered that Daniel was pushing a remote button with each page he turned, showing an image of the page up on a large screen against the wall of the ballroom. Stephanie leaned down and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she softly said, "Jimmy photographed the whole thing for us, so you can keep the original, but the kids can also have copies. It's meant so much to all of us, putting this thing together, Uncle Gil, and we wanted to share it with you."

He reached up and squeezed one of Stephanie's hands before tilting his head down to kiss the back. "I…I cannot express just…how much, how much this means to me, Stephie."

Her tears wet the back of his head as she laid her cheek down on it. "It's only a fraction of how much you mean to me, Uncle Gil."

She lifted away from him and he could just make out the rustling of another handkerchief being unfurled. "But enough with the sappy stuff... If you don't turn another page soon, the natives are likely to get restless." He looked over at all the children pointing and giggling at the projection on the screen.

"Right, we wouldn't want them to start storming the castle, or anything." He turned and found his wife's smiling face looking back at him. "Shall we turn the page?"

"I can't wait." And so they did. Each page brought more smiles and only a few more tears. This was a happy time and he was going to enjoy every moment; sharing it all with his family.

By the time they neared the end of the book, the little ones had already grown weary of the slide show. They were used to interactive toys and displays of varying degrees and a digital picture book would not hold their interest for long.

When he noticed Lindsey's husband Brian slipping into the room, he followed the movement with interest. Sara was busy explaining who the gray haired ladies in the pictures were to Tommy, who had unceremoniously plopped himself into his grandmother's lap at some point along the way.

Stephanie made her way over after speaking briefly to Brian. She had Colleen glued to her hip as she leaned down to tell him, "Apparently the barbarians are at the gate. Brian doesn't think he can hold them off too much longer before the fire marshal decides to pay a visit to the lobby."

He nodded his understanding. "I can finish looking at this at home. Or up on the screen for that matter. Just have Daniel set it on an automatic loop."

Lillian came in behind them, searching the room for a specific face. "Where the hell is Mikey?"

Sara joined her in scanning the faces of everyone present. "You know, I haven't seen him at all since we got here." She quickly found Geoffrey and called him over, Christian and Caroline firmly wrapped around each of his ankles. "Geoffrey, I thought you said Michael was going to be right back? Brian's been handling crowd control outside, and I still don't see Michael."

"Oh, well, ah… He should be back any minute now." He struggled with his words far more than he did with his labored steps.

"Where did he get off to, Geoffr-"

She was interrupted when Gil nudged her and pointed at the door. "Isn't that him with that rather disheveled looking young man in the shorts?"

They all followed his direction and before Sara could agree, her daughter let out an unintelligible yelp. Quicker than any of them could ask what was wrong, Lillian was rushing to the front door at a sprint, her floral print skirt trailing in the wind behind. They barely had time to register their surprise before she launched herself at the dark, mysterious stranger.

He dropped his bag the moment he heard her voice and turned in her direction as he held his arms open wide. When they met, he spun her about like a rag doll, holding her tightly in his embrace.

"Who the devil is that?" Gil finally managed to exclaim. "And why is he manhandling my daughter?"

He looked first to Geoffrey, who appeared to be absolutely panic stricken. But upon finding the young man's frightened gaze resting on his wife and goddaughter, he knew something truly was up.

Gil stood from his chair and straightened his jacket. He gave all three of the people around him a glare as he tucked his tie in behind the button of his suit jacket before he began walking toward his daughter and the stranger. As soon as he stepped away, Stephanie handed her granddaughter off to Thomas and took Tommy from his grandmother's lap, passing him to Geoffrey as she brought Sara with her to follow Gil.

As he approached Michael and his guest, the man brought his daughter back to her feet, but was once again holding her very tightly in his grasp. "Michael, what's going on here?"

Lillian was brought back to her senses in one horrifying second. As soon as she realized her father was standing right there she turned out of the man's arms and stood at his side. "Daddy, I-" The words caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard in an attempt to explain.

Michael, always quick thinking in a crisis, stepped in. "Sorry, Uncle Gil. Really. We got caught in a ton of traffic and I had to wait for Laurie to clear customs, because they routed him passed it in L.A. and then I had to go around the block twice because valet's overrun with people trying to get in here. If I hadn't called Brian, we'd still be circling in a holding pattern out there."

"So, this a friend of _yours_?" he asked through his scowl as Lillian had yet to removed herself from the man's side.

"Ah…" Michael seemed to be searching for just the right words to get himself out of hot water, but for once in his life the words would not come. "Not exactly?"

"Perhaps you should _introduce_ him, Mikey?" His mother tried to help him get out of the corner he was painted into.

Instead, Gil turned to glare at her. "You know what's going on here?"

Stephanie clicked her jaw as the words froze in her throat. "Um, only peripherally." Her statement sounded more like a question as she shrunk away from his heated gaze.

"Then please, Michael. Introduce your…_friend_."

Finally giving in to the drama of the moment, Michael exhaled sharply, "Yeah, so this sucks, because…sooooo not the way I tried to plan this."

That was when Lillian kicked into gear. "You what? You planned this whole thing?" She crossed in front of the stranger and poked Michael square in the chest.

"You planned what?" She reared back and everyone thought for sure that she was going to deck him when she began to rant. "You planned a last minute arrival? Keeping him out of the country? Making me completely insane! What exactly did you plan, **_Michael_**?!"

Cringing at her attack, Michael held up his hands in surrender. "Jesus! No! I didn't plan anything like that. I was just trying to get the guy off the damn island and home before the party."

From behind them, a little voice giggled, "Damn iwand."

"Shi-" Michael's face turned in on itself once he realized his mistake. "Sorry, Amanda." He looked down at Lillian and tried to explain. "I swear, I just didn't want to tell you what we were doing until I knew I could find him a replacement and then Geoffrey had trouble getting him a flight off the da-…the island, so I kept Laurie from saying anything until it was for sure. And then the weather out there went straight to-"

"Michael," the man's voice was thick with a French Patois accent, as he stopped Michael with a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps, I should explain." When Michael turned to regard him, he closed his eyes, nodded, and stepped aside. "Thank you, my friend. You have already done so much. I think I should handle it from here." His voice practically sang with the music of the islands he was obviously from.

"Dr. Grissom. Mrs. Grissom." He nodded to each, the short dreds in his hair swaying with each nod. "I apologize for my appearance, but I have been on several planes since some time yesterday, I think, and I have not yet had the opportunity to clean up from my journey. I hope you can forgive me, but it was very important that I make it here as quickly as possible."

Sara took Gil's hand, tying him to the earth with her touch. She was obviously worried about his reaction to the man's arrival.

"My name is Laurent St. George, but most people call me Laurie. I have just come from the island of Guam, because of my work. It was an unavoidable journey, because I can assure you, without a doubt, I would much rather have been right here." He took Lillian's hand and brought it to his lips for a soft kiss. "I am-"

"Daddy…" Lillian finally spoke again, stopping the man holding her hand. "I'm sorry, Laurie, but I need to do this." She smiled weakly at the man and then turned back to her father. "Daddy, I know I shou-"

As though he was thinking out loud, Gil said, "_Dr_. Laurent St. George…the climatologist?"

He answered, "Yes, Sir. I am."

"You've been head of the Perkins Institute of Global Climate Research for about two years now." He was still speaking in a matter of fact tone, working out the details in his head.

"Yes, Sir. Also correct." Laurie nodded at Gil to show his answer.

He held out his hand and said, "Congratulations."

Confused, Laurie held out his hand apprehensively to shake with the older man. "I don't think I understand, Sir." He looked between Lillian and her father to see how he should react.

"I just sat on a review board at UNLV to hire you as a fellow. We voted yesterday, unanimously." He watched as Laurie's chest filled with air and he exhaled with a tremendous amount of relief.

"Ah, thank you, Sir. That is definitely good news. Most definitely, very good." He gave Lillian a broad smile when he looked to her.

"I seem to recall that you were married, and that there was some kind of trouble. Am I wrong?" Gil immediately went in for the kill in order to see the man's and his daughter's reaction.

"Oh yes, well, I was, I mean I… Well, it is a most complicated-… It's very difficult to-" He floundered under the weight of Gil's veiled accusation. But much to his surprise, Gil watched Lillian step into the fray.

"Laurie's divorce was finalized almost three months ago, Daddy." She gave her father a pointed stare that told him she was on to his game. "And it was five years in the making, which you full well know. I can even remember you making a comment when it first hit the news, because she was claiming marital rights to the theories he was developing in his research, and you thought that would be a dangerous legal precedent."

Gil nodded at his daughter's well returned barb. "And so, how does this bring you to my birthday party?"

"Well, Sir. I am here because-" He was stopped again, but this time by Michael.

"Oh please. I'm tired of these stupid games." It was plainly obvious that Michael was done toeing the line. "Mom's known for weeks, if not months. Hell, knowing her, she's known since the beginning and just waited for Lilli to screw up and blab on herself. Aunt Sara probably figured it out on her own about the same time, and if not, I _know_ Mom told her." Michael's arms were flailing wildly as he spoke, showing his extreme annoyance.

"I've known about it since I got back from Mexico, and Geoffrey, who barely even knows you…" He gestured at Lilli with disgust, "He figured it out within five minutes when you got to our place in D.C…. Who the hell do you think you're fooling around here? For crying out loud they don't just solve the damn puzzles, they freaking invent them!"

He was yelling at that point and no amount of admonishment from his cousin's wife, or anyone else was going to stop him. "Uncle Gil may have been the last to have specific knowledge of who, what and where, but damnit, he knew the moment we walked in the blasted door, and if he didn't he sure as hell knew the moment Tinkerbell here went flying through the air!" Michael pointed at Laurie and said, "He's here for her…" he then pointed at Lillian, "they've been together for more than a year, and **you all freaking know about it!**"

"Here!" He thrust a scrapbook page into Gil's hands as he continued to rail. "Here's the proof!" He looked down to find pictures of his daughter, throughout the years, and including several with the young man before him. "And just for fun, because Mikey doesn't have enough to deal with in this family, let's recap the last three months of HELL for me. Oh, well, let's see, first these dumbasses got married two seconds after they found out he was going to have to leave for _Guam_, because some second rate jackass geologist couldn't stay away from the pot."

Michael handed him yet another page and kept going. "And as if that wasn't enough, they had such a wonderful send off that she's also pregnant!" Gil and Sara looked down at the page to see pictures of all the kids in their lives, and in the top corner sat a digital sonogram. "Congratulations! Happy Birthday! Mazal Tov! Merry Freaking Christmas! There! Now **Everybody _knows_ EVERYTHING**!"

Michael was breathless and heaving from the exertion of having completely spilled his guts.

With everyone speechless after his outburst, Stephanie took it upon herself to use the situation for a little humor. She turned to Sara and playfully asked, "So, should we ask him about the broken terrariums now, or wait another twenty years, after he finally admits they were the ones who set off the fire suppression system in the physics lab when they were eight?"

And just to show how much he truly belonged in their family, Geoffrey leaned in, with an arm around Bethie's back and asked, "While you're at it, could you ask him where he keeps hiding the good cookies?"

"Seriously?! You, too?" With everyone erupting into laughter, Michael threw his hands up in the air and screamed, "AAAAAAGGH!"

Lillian finally let go of her new husband and moved around him to grab her cousin. "Mikey..." She wrapped her arms around Michael and gave him a big hug as she laid her head against his chest. "Thank you… I know you went to a lot of trouble to make this whole thing happen. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you."

When he relaxed in her embrace she looked up to smile at him and after straightening his tie, found that he had finally calmed down. Turning away from his chest, she kept arm around his back and then reached out for Laurie's left hand. "Daddy, I know this isn't the ideal time or anything, but like Michael said, it wasn't exactly planned this way. Laurie and I didn't want to say anything until his divorce was final. And then he had this huge emergency come up with their biggest research project, so he had to leave in a hurry."

She looked away from her father and into Laurie's eyes when she admitted, "The baby thing was definitely not planned…this fast, but we're both thrilled, none the less."

Laurie smiled down at Lillian when he spoke up, "I was already making plans to relocate to Nevada, as you are obviously now aware. Lillian and I…" Between the power of the moment and the thickness of his accent, Gil was not quite sure he had ever heard his daughter's name sound quite so beautiful. "We were already talking about a family before my departure. Perhaps our talking was seen as a wish, but no matter the circumstances, we are both very happy with this turn of events."

He squeezed Lillian's hand again and took a deep breath before stepping away from her to stand tall in front of her father. "It may seem as though this is coming too late, but I would very much like to have your blessing, Dr. Grissom. It would mean a great deal to both of us."

The whole room was deathly silent, and the only sounds came from outside of the ballroom. Gil stood still, his hands unmoving, as this younger man stood before him with his hand outstretched.

Everything from that point forward would depend on his reaction to this new arrival, this man. This man, who was obviously older than his daughter. This man he knew a great deal about; about his career, about his background, about his education, about his ethics and about his integrity. But none of that meant anything to him in that moment.

What mattered to him, right then and there, went far deeper than someone's commitment to the environment or their scientific morality. No, what mattered to him, more than anything else in the world…was the way his daughter looked at him with so much love and devotion. The way her face brightened with his appearance more than he had seen since she was a little girl. That was the only thing that ever mattered to him.

He swallowed back the lump which had risen in his throat and inhaled a deep breath through his nose. This was quite possibly the hardest thing he had ever done, but he was determined to do it right.

Gil pushed the man's hand out of his way and quickly took him into his embrace. As everyone gasped in surprise, he simply said, "Welcome to the family, son."

* * *

_**Special Note from the Author:**_

_In early part of 2006, I started my very first CSI fanfic. I was nervous and I was incredibly excited. I had rediscovered my joy in writing, and this story practically came alive in my head just as it flowed out of my fingers. It was all I could do to find more time to write. We're now past the midway point in the summer of 2009, and this story is finally running out of steam. I have now finished the last chapter ever to be written in The Discovery Series._

_This quirky little alternate CSI universe has finally come to a close. I am very sad to see it go after all this time. It has been such a wonderful experience sharing this story with so many people, and through its writing I have discovered new friends and so many other things. I have learned so much during this time, and I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on the you to anyone who has read, or commented, or given advice, or just listened to me blather on about something related to the story. You have all given me a wonderful gift with this experience and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And for the handful of extraordinary people who have helped me to beta this beast over the years, there are not enough words to describe how wonderful you all are._

_If you have enjoyed this series in any way, you can heap a lot of credit onto three people in specific; seraphkre, tyriatainer, and smacky30. These three incredible women have given me so much as I attempted to slay this dragon, I just cannot express the deep and heartfelt gratitude I have for these women. You are all beautiful, talented, dedicated and unbelievably generous women, and I thank you._

_-LosingInTranslation_


	16. Part 5: On a Mission - Easter Egg

**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

_**RATING:** T - For Teen (for mild language)_

**_PAIRINGS:_** GSR/YoBling/Etc

**_SPOILERS:_** None... 6th Installment of The Discovery Series

_**SUMMARY:**_ A series of Random One-Shots following the continuing years of the Discovery Series family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.

_**A/N:**_ There was such a HUGE outpouring of requests to keep this thing going, I sort of changed the original intent of this final installment. It has now morphed into a series of One-Shots taking place over a huge expanse of time in this little universe I've created, and linked by an up coming event in that world. I'll keep writing them as long as people keep reading them. Thank you all for supporting this series.

_**A/N2:**_ If you want to get the FULL experience of this series, you'll need to check out the link in my profile. There are graphics that go along with the story. I've tried to describe each one a little bit, but there are extra surprises in the ones on the website.

_**A/N3:**_ Between sickness, a broken tooth, and the general insanity that has become a real part of the months of September October to me in recent years, I just didn't have the time or inclination to write this chapter. I did finally get it done though, and it's a long one. There's some even more surprises in the version housed over at my website (linked in my profile).

_**A/N4:**_ This is the hidden "Easter Egg" from Part 5, which includes Jimmy's stories about each of the pictures on his mother's office wall. And yes, this means there were other hidden stories...and possibly a new one in the works.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

* * *

**Part 5 -_ On a Mission (Hidden Easter Egg Stories - Jimmy's Art)  
_**

**_The Man The Myth The Uncle_**

I did this painting of Uncle Gil from an old photo that my mother kept tucked away. She has a few pictures that she holds very dear, and this was one of them. It was taken on one of their many excursions into the parks of Northern California when my mother was a girl. When I found the picture as a small boy, I asked her why it was so special to her. Her answer has stayed with me for my whole life. And it was what prompted me to work on this painting in secret as a kid.

When I was 13, I wanted to give my mother something very special for Mother's Day that year. Both of my parents sacrificed for us kids, but when I was 13, I learned about the children my mother lost between Danny and Bethie. It affected me very deeply. One, because I knew how much my parents dearly loved us, and how heart-breaking it must have been for them, but also because they never let that loss touch their other children. I only found out by mistake after our grandmother passed away.

So, I was determined to do something extraordinary for Mother's Day that year, because I knew she would be feeling the loss of Grams, and I wanted to ease that burden, in any way I could. For me, that meant getting out the paints.

I had already given Mom a picture of my Grams I had taken of her in the garden she built with my mother. It was in full bloom at the time, and her Whisperkiss Sweet Peas were in perfect season. With a little help from my computer, I managed to turn it into a stunning photograph, and Pop helped me get a large print made, and the whole thing framed. It still hangs in our family room to this day. With Grams watching over our ever growing family, her favorite flowers all around her.

But that left me scrambling to find the perfect subject for Mother's Day. I could have done something of us kids, but then I ran the risk of the family tattler, my brother Danny, spilling the beans. That was when I saw Momma going through her special pictures one afternoon, and I remembered the story she told me about the picture of Uncle Gil.

Momma said she loved that picture of him because it was how she always thought of him. The sun shining on his face, a faint grin hiding underneath, as he pondered the questions of the world. She told me that she could still see the hope in his eyes when she looked at that picture, and it reminded her that with knowledge, family, and faith anything was possible. Uncle Gil was all of those things to her.

While Uncle Gil was not what anyone would call a religious man, he had a very strong belief system, and he was nothing if not a fierce supporter of the quest for knowledge. I understood so much about my mother's connection to this kind and quirky man that seemed to be at the center of our lives, when she told me about the photograph. And it became a connection for me to my mother, because she was the one who had taken it. When she was young and struggling through the death of her brother, she used photography as a means to express the things she dared not talk about. We had that in common, she and I, and whenever I see this painting, I am reminded about all the intertwining connections that run through this family...because of this one man with hope in his eyes.

**_Tiny Toes_**

I had seen my brother experience fatherhood from a distance. I married a woman with two children from a previous relationship, and I worked very hard to become a father to them before I had my own daughter. But not until my cousin Max, and my best friend, became a father did I truly experience that magic for the first time.

Max married young, right out of college, which for Max was young, given he started at fourteen. Oddly enough, Max's wife Amanda was in the same boat, and they sailed through UCLA together as this unbeatable team, earning their first bachelor's degrees before going off to MIT for the rest. And the whole family loved Amanda, so there was never any doubt how that was going to turn out.

When they told us they were expecting their first child as he worked on his doctoral degree, no one was surprised they hadn't waited very long to start their family. Max and I had always talked very openly, and he would often tell me that his only regret in life was that his parents took so long finding each other, because he would have liked to have known his father as a younger man. Frequently, he told me how much he envied me for having a younger father. He never said this to his parents, but with me he could be honest about his feelings.

When his first child was born, I think we were all surprised by the name he had picked out for his son; Thomas James Grissom. We weren't surprised that he hadn't named the boy after his father, because Uncle Gil had given VERY strict instructions that Gilbert had better end with Mikey's middle name, or he was going to haunt the next four generations of the family.

I wasn't even that surprised that he named the boy after my father, because Pop had been his football coach and favorite pseudo uncle his whole life. No, I was shocked and dumbfounded that he would name the kid after me. But nothing could have prepared me for his answer when I asked him about the honor.

Max told me that he wanted his son to know a world with the strength of the men in his family, as well as the women, and naming him after my father and me was the way he planned to start it off. He said that my father overcame a very difficult childhood to become a doctor and one of the best husbands, fathers and friends he had ever known, and it was important for him to honor that accomplishment. Then he told me that he gave him the middle name of James because it was not only the name of his best friend, and the man he would have as his godfather, but it was also the name of two very strong men in the history of his family.

The man for whom I was named was the one all of us kids just called Papa Jim. He was way more than an uncle, and none of us had a living grandfather, so Papa Jim just sort of fit into the role. He was also the man that stood up for my Aunt Sara when she got married, took care of my parents when there was a threat on their lives before I was born, and he was the man everyone went to when they were in trouble. No matter how big or small it was, Papa Jim was the one to take care of all of us. Even Uncle Gil went to him, from time to time.

So, when Max brought little Tommy home to Vegas the first time, I told him to come by my studio. I wanted to do something really special for them, and I had been doing a lot of side work on portraiture at the time (just to make ends meet), so I had the setup for some great baby pictures.

When they got there, Max told me he really wasn't interested in some cheesy baby pictures, and I was instantly worried. He pulled out my "Bests" book from my desk and handed it to me. What he said next nearly did me in. He said, "I want something you'd be proud enough to put in there. I want to see what fatherhood looks like through your eyes, through that camera lens." And those tiny toes held softly in his reverent hands...that's what how I saw it.

**_The Best Broad Ever_**

In high school, I had to do some graphic art for this class I took. I hated the class, and I hated the styles I was forced into using, but I decided after I did this piece that it was all worth it to have this for all time. The original is at Aunt Cath's house, but I had a couple prints made from it to give to Momma and Lindsey.

When I did the original painting, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I worked from a candid photograph I had found while digging through some old picture disks. It kind of jumped out at me, because it showed something that few people ever saw of Aunt Cath; her vulnerability.

I printed the picture out on some photo paper and kept it with me for a while. When I first started the assignment that led to this painting, I used a picture of a building I had taken, but I just couldn't get into the assignment. One of the other kids in the class happened across the picture of Aunt Cath and held it out to me. "THIS is the one you should be doing," she said. And when I looked at the picture again, I knew she was right.

Eight colors, no blending, mostly clean lines, and the image of a woman's soul seemed to come up off of the canvas. All of her strength, all of her courage, all of her caring, and all of her fight in one simple eight color cut-out style painting. I didn't care about the assignment anymore, the only thing I wanted to know from the teacher was when I could take it home.

The teacher tried to get me to enter it in some district contest, but I didn't care about that, I just wanted to take it home to show my mother. And when I finally wrenched it from the teacher's hands, it was worth way more than whatever that teacher thought it would be in some pointless school art show. My mother actually gasped when she saw it. That was better than any ribbon or savings bond in the world. And she confirmed to me what I had been thinking ever since it was finished; it would be the perfect present for Uncle Rick's birthday.

When he unwrapped it the next week at his party, I got an even better present. While Uncle Rick smiled at the painting, taking in everything I had already seen, Aunt Cath just couldn't take the suspense any longer and walked around behind him to get a look. That was when it happened, with Uncle Rick totally lost in the image there on the canvas, Aunt Cath actually screamed. It was the first time in my life I ever saw her blush, and it was all my fault.

Uncle Rick stood up from the couch, took the frame that was in the center of the living room wall down, and hung my painting in its place. As everyone stared at the painting, I could hear the hushed murmurs throughout the room. I was so proud of myself at that moment that I was completely shocked when Uncle Rick put his arms around me. Softly, he spoke into my ear the words that ring out to me every time I see that work. "Thank you for capturing the woman beneath broad. Thanks for seeing the real Catherine. That's the woman I see...the one I love."

**_The One Always at the Center_**

I should mention again how much I HATE cut-out art, but seeing as my father loves anything that I've ever done with pictures of my mother, I suppose I should not include this one in that category.

This was another assignment for a class, but this time I tried to have a little fun with it. Using a picture of my mother is always a daunting task, because I really don't think pictures can ever do her justice. Not that she isn't photogenic, because damn the woman takes great pictures. But you just can't capture everything that my mother is in a photo, or even a painting. Believe me, I've tried. She's just that good.

My father loves this painting, and once again Mom only ends up with a print of it. The original is hanging in my father's office at the hospital.

This work is a testament, not to my talent as an artist, but to the amazing love and devotion of one woman to her family, at all costs. The day before this picture was taken, my mother had lost her last child. I was just barely nine years old, and it was just another day around the house for me. Mom had stayed home from work that day, because she came home the day before "not feeling well."

I was just getting over my latest bout of bronchitis, and Mom refused to let me go to school when I was hacking, so I was on home-school duty that week with Uncle Gil. When he dropped me off at the house, he told me to make sure I did all my homework and to call him right away if Mom was still under the weather. I was nine, and I was pretty sure I could handle anything that needed handling all on my own, but I promised Uncle Gil anyway.

When I walked into the house, it was oddly quiet. I finally found Mom out back, sitting in a patio chair in her big sweater and jeans with her hair down. That was Mom's staying home uniform in the winter. In the summer it was jeans and tank tops, and the other times of the year it was jeans and jerseys. Mom was always a simple dresser at home. She said it was hard to dress up at home when she basically wore pajamas for a living as a coroner, except on court days.

As soon as I opened the patio door, it felt like I was intruding on Mom's quiet time, so I quickly closed it again. Instead, I went into the kitchen and heated up a bowl of water to pour into the two mugs of cocoa I set up while the microwave did its thing. With the nervous gait of an awkward nine year old asthmatic, I made my way out to the patio with the two mugs of cocoa.

The moment she saw me, her face changed from the quiet, solemn picture I first found, and she struggled to smile for me. We drank our cocoa, as Mom asked me about my lessons with Uncle Gil. And before long, Mom seemed to slip back into her same old self.

After we finished the cocoa, Mom said I should get in the house before the chill in the air kicked up my bronchitis again. She smiled when I reminded her about the same thing, since the asthma was something else we shared. But when I got to the patio door again, I sensed that her mood had gone back to the darkness.

My camera was just inside the door, so I set the mugs down and grabbed it. I turned back to her and called out to get her attention. She gracefully turned on the chair and looked over the back of it at me to smile. Pain and horrible loss, but Mom still had a smile for her favorite problem child.

**_For My Old Man_**

I still can't believe my mother put that silly graphic in a picture frame and keeps it in her office. I refuse to show it again, simply because it isn't art, so this is the original photograph I used.

My father was a football hero at UCLA. His status as a football hero at his prep school was the reason he got to go to college. My father sacrificed his future health for the shot at a better life than anything he could have done without it. To this day, even with total knee replacements in both legs, he walks a little stiff sometimes, and I know he has trouble with his back, too.

I did the silly little cut and paste job with one of Pop's press photos over a wallpaper of UCLA logos as a little joke for my Pop. He was playing in a touch football game for Bethie's Girl Scout group in some weird father-daughter event. I was at college and playing around on the computer one night when I got the idea. I think I spent a half hour whipping it up, tops.

However, my mother got a hold of it, and printed it up into a giant poster to take to the event. Pop was embarrassed, Bethie was mobbed by the kids who thought her father was "just a doctor" and Momma had a good laugh with it. I felt horrible about the whole thing, but figured it was over and done with and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. And then I came home.

For the rest of my life I'm gonna have to look at that picture in her office, knowing the story behind it. Thankfully, my father has a great sense of humor. He did marry Momma, after all.

**_Mother & Child_**

We all give my older brother Patrick a lot of grief, and his poor wife is one of the reasons. Paddy and Tammy got married within weeks after they graduated from college. Both of them headed off to graduate school the very next term. Before the start of the Fall term, Tammy was pregnant with their first children. Just like my folks, first try out of the gate, they were having twins.

Our grandfather was a twin, and my grandmother insisted my mother had the energy of a pair of twins, so when Tammy found out there were two little bundles in there, I really don't think anyone was surprised. But, having twins meant that some changes had to be made. And that meant she was dropping out of grad school.

My brother fought long and hard to keep her in classes, but Tammy was insistent that she was not going to sacrifice her family's well-being just to take classes. She claimed that she would be perfectly happy as a regular teacher once the twins started school, and that being an administrator could wait until her children were more grown.

Just as she was getting the most adorable toe-headed fraternal twins in the world ready for preschool, and looking into getting her teaching licensure started, she got the news. Pregnancy number two had already begun. And that was when the jokes really started.

Mikey was the first, as usual, to start giving Patrick grief about keeping his poor wife barefoot and pregnant all the time. To her credit, Tammy always took it in stride.

She had grown up with a military father, and a mother who worked. She felt like it was important for she and Patrick to be there for their children in the ways she thought her parents had missed out on. When she was a teenager, her father retired from the military and they became close after that, but she always wondered what her life could have been if she'd had her father around as a young girl.

When Colleen, their 3rd child, was born Tammy asked me to take some pictures of the baby. Colleen had some problems early in her life, and they were very concerned she wouldn't make it through that first year. So, I took A LOT of pictures of my pretty Colleen.

However, out of all of the pictures I took of her those first tenuous months, this is my favorite. It not only showed a beautiful, healthy child, but it showed the source of her beauty and her health. Tammy is one of the best mothers I have ever known, and I thank God every day that my brother found such an amazing woman to be the mother of his children, as well as his best friend. The O'Halleran men seem to excel in that particular area, and this picture showcases that quite nicely.

**_My Best Friend's Wedding_**

I was blessed with the honor of taking the photographs at my best friend's wedding. My cousin Max is this amazing, vibrant, dedicated, methodical, and incredibly passionate man. His wedding was the perfect demonstration of all of his best traits.

They had the wedding in Marina Del Ray, near the place his father had grown up, because he wanted a piece of history to mark the occasion. But he also picked the spot because he thought it was the best place for his grandmother to be able to watch the show. Max was sure that his grandmother never left that place, even after her death. He figured that if she wouldn't leave it when his father started having kids, she sure as hell wasn't leaving it just because she was dead.

Max was only 4 when Nana Mary passed away, but he shared a special connection with the woman who gave life to his father. Momma used to whisper that Nana Mary was probably sitting on Max's shoulder, but that she wasn't entirely sure whether she was the angel or the devil telling him what to do. I'm inclined to believe she was both.

Max and Amanda met during freshman orientation at UCLA. They were easy to pick out of the crowd, as both were only 14 when they started college, and they were the only ones there with their parents in tow, While Max lived with Greg's family during the school year, Amanda lived only two doors down with her family.

When Max applied to UCLA, his parents were initially shocked with his choice of schools. But Max explained that there was a physics professor at UCLA he had been collaborating with for nearly a year, and he wanted to be his research assistant. The arrangements with Greg were made, and it was all said and done. What Max neglected to tell his parents was that he also wanted to go to UCLA so that he had a chance to surf as much as humanly possible before he was forced into a winter exile at MIT after getting his first bachelor's degree.

After Max & Amanda met, I knew there was no chance they weren't perfect for each other. The first time I saw them together, she was reminding him to eat, and that I was supposed to be arriving any minute for a visit. Max was always getting caught up in something for hours on end and forgetting about the rest of the world, as well as his own biological needs. Amanda made sure he never forgot who and what he was when she was around.

At their wedding, everything was done by the book. All traditions upheld, all expectations met. And then I started taking some candid pictures. That was when the mischievous side of my best friend came out. The shoes, the tie and the jacket came off, and the race was on.

As they went running down the beach, in an attempt to get a little time alone, I quickly switched over to the long range lens to capture the perfect picture of them on their wedding day. When I think of them as a couple...that's what I see.

**_My Other Best Friend_**

Outside of my mother and my wife, there has only ever been one other woman to understand the craziness that is me.

My mother worried about me a lot. I wasn't a healthy kid, and that was part of it, but I also struggled to fit in with our over-achieving, highly academic family. I wasn't terribly outgoing, I wasn't athletic, and I sure as hell wasn't a genius. I've always considered myself to be reasonably intelligent, but when you live in a family of people whose average IQ is over 150, that just doesn't ever feel like enough.

And while I fought to find my place in that hierarchy, Momma struggled to make things right for me. This often led to us butting heads, no matter how much she tried not to let it. That's where Aunt Sara came in.

Aunt Sara seemed to connect with me pretty early on, which is strange, since she's one of the ones tipping the IQ scales up there around the top. I guess because she had to struggle in a similar situation growing up, being the odd one out in the children's home, we were able to relate to each other. Of course, it helped that we also seemed to share the same morbid and off-beat sense of humor.

I love using Aunt Sara as a subject in my art. Her high forehead, the shape of her lips, the way her hair catches the light, and the tilt of her head; these were all fantastic to capture in sketches and paintings. But it was also because Aunt Sara knew art, and could pick out the little things I was doing with each piece.

I did this one for my mother. Over the years, I began to realize that she was a lot more than the woman married to my uncle for my mother. In a lot of ways, Aunt Sara was more like my mother's big sister and closest friend. She and Pop were best friends, but Aunt Sara ran a very close second.

Momma said she needed a good picture of Aunt Sara to put in her office one day, so we started going through all the stuff that I had on the computer. When we came to that photo, Mom stopped instantly. She pointed to it and said, "That one... It really shows that quiet reverence she has when she's solving a problem. I've always loved that look she gets when she's figuring something out."

Our eye for personality traits is something else my mother and I share. We see things in others that no one else can; Aunt Cath's vulnerability, Uncle Gil's hope, Max's wildness, Momma's strength and grace, the true emotions of parenthood, and all the good and the bad thrown together that makes up the people we love.

That's why seeing this wall in my mother's office is always such a moving experience for me. Because she sees in me, all of the things I see in others, and she sees all of the things I see, through my eyes.

* * *

_**Don't forget to check out the graphics on the website I have linked in my profile!**_


	17. Part 14: Cutting it Down - Easter Egg

_**DISCLAIMER: **_Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!  
_**RATING: **_Teen  
_**SPOILERS:**_ None - No. 6 in the Discovery Series  
_**PAIRINGS:**_ GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc.  
_**SUMMARY:**_ The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album")

_**A/N:**_ Much faster turnaround than the last time, but I got hung up on some technicalities. Here's hoping the last chapter doesn't actually kill me. This has been a long and very fulfilling road, and I want to take this time to thank all of you for taking this journey with me. Also, if you haven't check out the story on my website, now would be a really good time. Not only are all the pictures and scrapbook pages talked about in the story there, but there are a few easter eggs hidden in links through some of the chapters. What does that mean? It means you could be missing a lot more story by only reading it here.

_**A/N2:**_ Those Easter Eggs? Yeah, this is one of them, and it is hidden inside Part 14 as well as the final scrapbook in the last part on my website. And what's all this leading up to? Well, I'm glad you asked... After a GREAT DEAL of persuasion, I have been convinced to work on another Easter Egg story for this installment of the Discovery Series. It's nearly done, and I hope to have it posted in the next couple weeks. So, I figured it might not be a bad idea to push out the original Easter Eggs into the light, because I also discovered that quite a few people had never found them. I hope you enjoy this little refresher (or new glimpses for those who didn't find them), and I'll see you back in a couple weeks with the new story.

_**REVIEWS: **_Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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**Tucked behind the Wedding Page of the scrapbook are several printed pages  
containing the stories told to the newest member of the family about their  
relationships, along with a note...**

_**GSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRG SRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGS RGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSR**_

Finding myself suddenly immersed in this enormous and very complicated family, I tried to make sense of it all by asking a lot of questions. Inevitably, the conversations always seemed to drift to our relationships and how we got mixed up with these crazy people we now called family.

Being the new guy on the scene, I have very little to add to the celebration, so I've recorded all of those conversations in print and slipped them into your scrapbook. I hope you can one day sit back and enjoy the stories, as well as the pictures that make up the ties that bind in this group.

Thank you for welcoming me into your family,

Geoffrey

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**Greg & Kirsten**

Leaving Las Vegas was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Way harder than it was to go away to college, and even more than going to Vegas in the first place.

I was comfortable in Vegas. Too comfortable. Everything was as it always would be there, and there was nothing I could do to change that. From Grissom, to Catherine, to Warrick, to…whoever came down the line; things in CSI were always going to be the same.

It was Sara who convinced me to take the chance in L.A. Sara was always my biggest fan, and she was also the person who knew me better than anyone else. She knew I was stagnating in Vegas. So, when Stephanie's friend at the L.A. County Coroner's office told her about the public liaison officer job, Sara was the first to suggest me for the job.

Sara knew I always had a fascination with the worlds of glitz and glamour, be it the Vegas elite or Hollywood, and she knew what an opportunity it was for me. As the public liaison officer, I would be in direct contact with the movers and shakers, because part of the job involved acting as a professional consultant to the production studios.

The job was everything I hoped it would be, and so much more. After three years with the L.A. County Coroner's Office, I walked away with a two movie script deal, the pilot of a new cop show, and the prettiest criminalistics professor in the world as my wife.

Kirsten came into my life at just the right time. I'd been in L.A. for not quite a year, and I was beginning to think the whole place was plastic and shallow. But then this amazing woman showed up looking to set up a tour for one of her classes at UCLA. I have no idea how I managed to set up the tour, but it was on the schedule for the following week when we were done.

From the moment she walked into my office that day, she's been taking my breath away. She inspires me every day with her love, not just for me, but for life. She's got this way of looking at things that makes it impossible to ever be cynical or brooding. Kirsten truly is the light of my life.

Don't get me wrong, she is absolutely beautiful and I count myself seriously lucky to have captured the heart of such a stunning woman. But it's not just the outside that's breathtaking. She's got this astounding inner beauty that totally outshines the rest. Kirsten can smile and I swear the whole room gets warm, even if you don't see her right off, you can feel the warmth of her smile. And I thank whatever god there might be, because our kids have it, too.

Six. I have six kids. Can you believe that? Me? With six kids? It's incredible, really. I was an only child, and so was Kirsten. To imagine either of us with six kids is just mind blowing, but we didn't want our kids to feel as alone as we did. Trust me, with six kids there is no such thing as alone. In fact, I sometimes wonder how in the heck we even managed to find the time to get the last three.

Kirsten and I are both from Norwegian families, and we decided to give our kids the same traditional names we had, but also ones that were easily Americanized. We both knew too well the cruelty of the schoolyard. So Nikolai, Birget, Erica, Marit, Karita and Greggers came into our lives, and nothing has ever been the same.

Now I work as a professional consultant for the television and film industry, in between writing pulp crime novels and watching my kids growing up. Most of my writing was and is done at home, enabling me to be a stay-at-home Dad. You wouldn't think that was something I ever wanted when I was younger, but I am grateful every day for how my life turned out.

I taught my kids all the same things my grandparents taught me, and I was there for every single milestone in their lives. From their first tooth and first words, to learning fractions and learning to drive, I was there. And now the milestones are even bigger, like being there when my first grandchild came into the world.

But I know, without a doubt, if it wasn't for my life in Las Vegas, none of this would have been possible. My life, my wife, my kids and heaven help me, the long line of grandchildren sure to sprout up soon; I owe them all to the time I spent in Vegas, and the people who have become an integral part of my extended family. They are my teachers, my mentors, my friends, my family; each and every one of them.

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**Nick & R.J.**

It's funny how life works out sometimes. Growing up in Texas my parents had this plan all laid out for me from the time I was born. All of us kids did, it was just how things worked in our family. But the thing about plans is they just don't always happen the way they're intended.

For instance, when both your parents are lawyers, it's pretty much a given that everyone thinks all their kids will go to law school. My big brother was supposed to take over the old man's practice, and one day to succeed him on the bench. My sisters were supposed to alternate between working with Momma as a defender, and following our father's footsteps in the prosecutor's office. Instead, after finishing law school, my brother Danny joined the U.S. Marshal's Service and never even bothered to take the bar exam. The girls all went to law school, but Maggie went into business law and then became a high-powered executive. Ruth-Anne started off in family law and ended up working for social services. Rachel went straight from law school to the maternity ward and never looked back. And that left Connie, who was the only one to follow our parents' path by becoming a criminal defense attorney in Momma's practice.

And then there was me. Only kid who didn't even go to law school. I don't know; it just never hit me the way it did the others. I didn't want to defend the law, I wanted to find the truth. And if there's one thing you learn as a lawyer's kid, it's that the truth and the law rarely work together.

For all their careful work and grand plans, my folks ended up with a one in six success rate. I think that's where the saying comes from: _The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. _Of course, Grissom would tell you that it's a misquote and then go into detail about the original source material, but I'll stick with the one that makes more sense in the here and now.

The other prime example of that little piece of wisdom shares a very special place in my heart. I was never what you would call a playboy, but I also wasn't real big on relationships that went beyond a few dates and a nice roll in the hay. But at the same time, I grew up thinking I'd have all the same things my folks did. I just kept telling myself that I wasn't gonna settle until I found something as good as they had.

That was the lie I used to settle my guilt.

Truth was I didn't know what I wanted. So, I just focused on my work and tried to have a good time until something better came along. And boy did it.

Me and R.J. were never one of those couples whose destiny was written in the stars. There was no love at first sight, no bells, no chirping birds. This was no fairytale romance.

She was everything I never looked for in a date; wicked smart, loaded for bear at all times, foul-mouthed, pig-headed, opinionated, ambitious, hardened, sarcastic, and filled with more strength than any ten women I'd ever dated before. And she scared the ever-lovin' hell outta me. Still does.

The part that shocked me though was the real reason all of that scared me. It scared me because of just how much it all made me love her even more. We had a rocky start, to say the least, but every time I thought it would all fall apart, she'd do or say something making it crystal clear that I couldn't live without her and it would all fall back into place.

Once we accepted our fates to drive each other crazy for the rest of our lives, there was only one more instance where we almost fell apart. That was our wedding.

R.J. had met my parents and my brother several times before we went down to Texas to announce the wedding. However, it was the first time she'd met the rest of the Stokes clan.

There's one thing you should know about my sisters… They are fiercely protective of their baby brother. Almost to the point of being pathological.

I love my sisters very much, but I also know what a hornets' nest they can turn into. It was the primary reason why I never brought anyone home to get the full treatment. I saw what they did to anyone daring to take on a Stokes, and my brothers-in-law all wore the scars to prove it. And with the first and only woman I had ever brought home, they were beyond relentless.

It was the first time in my entire life where I had to stand up against my own family. We weren't even there two days before they crossed the line, and almost destroyed my whole relationship.

You see, R.J. has been through a lot in her life. She used to be really good at hiding most of it, but the years have made that impossible now. Doesn't stop her from trying, but she's finally gotten better about accepting help when she can't physically do something. But back then she was still very stubborn about doing it herself. And my sisters saw this as a reason to reject her as my choice in a wife.

They knew Neeley had stayed with us up in Vegas, and so they spent a fair amount of time grilling my poor niece about R.J., looking for ammunition to shoot her down. And they found it when they discovered she wasn't able to have kids because of the accident.

Nevermind that I had not once mentioned wanting kids, they made up their mind she couldn't possibly be the one for me if she couldn't give me children. And I guess they made sure she knew it.

Before I knew what had happened, R.J. had hightailed it off the ranch and out of Texas. Once I figured it all out, it was hell trying to track her down, but with a little help from my brother Danny, I did. And before I left the ranch, I gave my sisters a piece of mind. I told them that I didn't care if they accepted R.J. or not, because I was going to spend the rest of my life with her, even if that meant they wouldn't be a part of that life.

When I finally found her at her parents' old place in Sedona, I told her that not only did I not give a damn about having kids, that I didn't even want to invite my family to the wedding anymore. All I wanted was her, and me, and Uncle Petey, and the preacher, and everyone else could just suck it.

Thankfully, she talked me out of that particular scenario, but I would still have been just as happy if she'd have agreed. So, we compromised. We had the wedding, the following week, at this little church in Sedona high up on a cliff. Just my parents, Neeley and her Dad, my sister Connie and her family (after a rather broken-hearted apology), Uncle Petey, and our closest friends. It was small, but it was perfect. R.J. wore her mother's dress, with a little help from Rosa, and I had to drive all the way to Flagstaff to find a tux at the last minute. But it was perfect.

It's not easy, and there's always some kind of drama lurking right around the corner, but it's also the best thing that ever happened to me. I found somebody to challenge me. She challenges me to be a better husband, a better friend, a better man. But more than that, she loves me whether or not I meet those challenges. I wake up every day knowing there's at least one person in this world who understands and accepts me without limits. And that's better than anything I could've ever planned for myself.

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**Catherine & Warrick**

To say we weren't your everyday couple would be like saying the sky is blue. And with this crazy mixed up family, it's kind of a given. But even in this crew, we were different.

First off, we'd both been down that road before, and failed miserably. Warrick's first marriage was like an experiment in everything you're not supposed to do. And mine…well, let's just say I learned a lot of life lessons being married to Eddie Willows.

The age difference wasn't anything earth shattering, and the racial thing was never an issue for either of us. No, for me the big thing was that we worked together, and that we were such good friends before anything happened. That was never anything I had ever done. To get involved with someone who already knew all the deep dark secrets in my closet was really scary.

In the end, none of it mattered. We just belonged together. It was just that damn simple. There was no one else on this planet who was more perfect for me, and he swore the same was true for him.

The only thing we had left to sort through was how to let go of those old barriers and to truly accept one another in our hearts. It was also the easiest thing I had ever done. With Warrick, it just seemed like everything fell into place.

The part I really struggled with was letting him into my relationship with Lindsey. But that had more to do with the fact that I had been the only parent for so long. Even before Eddie passed away, it was always on my shoulders, with some help from my family. And I kept trying to insulate Warrick from anything to do with Lindsey.

However, the more I tried to keep him from dealing with the day to day parent stuff, the more he took on. Before I knew what was happening, the two of them were becoming a united front against me. And it was only broken when Lindsey brought a pimply faced boy to the house to "study." Warrick turned into a whole different person and Lindsey came to me for support.

Poor Warrick was beside himself, and I had to explain to him that the hardest part about being a parent was having to be the bad guy once in a while. And that was when it hit me; Warrick had become her father. _We_ were her parents. And everything I thought I had to keep to myself in order to maintain our relationship was a joke.

We called up a friend at the Stratosphere and booked our wedding for the very next week. It wasn't fancy, or elegant or flashy, or larger than life. No, it was just us and our family, the whole crazy lot of them. We'd both been down that road before, and both of us had done the wedding chapel schtick, so this time we made it about us, and the people we cared for the most.

I know it's cliché and all that, but I can honestly say it was one of the happiest nights of my life. When I think about the life we shared, I always remember that night, and how it felt when I slipped that ring on his finger. I finally had a partner, someone to share everything with, and the rings we wear have been a symbol of that promise ever since.

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**Niko & Tally**

Everyone says we got married too young. Everyone but my Dad. He has always been a firm believer in knowing what you want, and going for it. All he did was ask me if this was really what I wanted more than anything, and when I answered yes, he gave me a big hug and said congratulations. Too young or not, I got married with my parents' blessing.

I am twenty four years old, and I have been married for three years. I didn't get married because I had to, despite what some people might have said. Tally and I just knew. We knew from the moment we first met that we were going to be together for the rest of our lives.

It was easy for us. It was everyone else that struggled with it. Admittedly, it was probably just a little weird, seeing as she was only sixteen when we met. But I was just nineteen, and we were both in college. She was at UC-Northridge, while I was at Cal-Tech, and we met on the beach.

We both wasted a lot of time riding the surf and basking in the glorious Southern California sun. But we also know how to hit the books. I was working in nano-tech before I even got out of college, and at twenty four, I'm already looking at starting my PhD in biomedical technology. Tally started college almost two years early, and she's been thinking about going back to get her doctorate in adolescent educational psychology once the kids are old enough.

We've got one daughter now, Lisabet, named for my great grandmother on my Mom's side, and sort of after my Dad's favorite chemistry teacher, who was also Aunt Steph's Mom. I say we have one now, because we'd like to have a bunch before we're done. I grew up in a big family and I really love it. Tally just had her and her sister, but she wants a big family, too. Thanks to our folks, we think we're both well suited to handle the challenge.

So, here I am, a twenty four year old tech monkey, playing with silicone during the day, and helping my wife with our baby at night. And I love every single minute of it, because the woman I share my life with is everything I could have ever wanted. So, if you see it, don't wait around and hope it'll still be there when you think you're ready… Grab hold of that wave and ride it straight through to the other side. You'll never regret taking the wave, but you'll always regret the ones you never tried.

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**Paddy & Tammy**

My father was a career Marine. He's still a Marine, but now it's just a way of life, instead of a career. I love him, I really do, but sometimes I wonder if my life would have been different if he had been around more, instead of out on deployment all the time.

That's one of the many things I love about being married to Patrick. Patrick comes home every night. In fact, he's home a lot of days, too. Our children are small right now, but they still appreciate knowing where their Poppa is at all times.

Paddy and I met in college, both of us struggling to make it on our own, away from our families. At first, I really wasn't interested in him at all. He was just such a cut-up all the time, and I couldn't ever imagine myself with someone who wasn't straight-laced and at least a little bit serious. And then I met his twin brother Mikey. I was shocked to no end to find out that Paddy was the straight man in that crew.

I looked at him differently after meeting Mikey. Twin brothers attending different colleges, trying to move out of one another's shadows. It became even more surprising when I learned that Mikey was gay. They easily could have gone to the same school, because they were both obscenely smart, but Mikey had chosen another school at the last minute. When I asked Paddy about it later, he told me that the reason Mike went somewhere else was because he never wanted his dating to color people's perceptions of his twin. Those two had this amazing relationship, and it made me want to know more about Patrick as a result.

The more I learned about Patrick, the more I fell in love with him. I uncovered a shy, unsure and incredibly gentle person underneath all the jokes and the preening. I found a man deeply committed to his family and his friends. And I found a man who was intensely empathic to those around him. Whenever I saw him, I almost expected to find him counseling one person or another, and it was usually true.

Before long, I was telling him my darkest secrets and my most precious dreams. I trusted him with everything, but most especially with my heart. And for that trust, he gave me his heart in return. Patrick would forever be a part of my life, and we became engaged between our junior and senior years of college.

My father was not amused when we went to the house in San Diego to tell him the _good news_. He felt we were too young, that we had no idea what we were getting into and we were making a huge mistake. I was ready to beat the old Marine over the head with an anchor when Patrick spoke up. He told my father that while he respected his opinions, he knew his own heart, and he trusted me to know mine and that we would be getting married, with or without his blessing. He said he hoped with every fiber of his being that my father could find it in his heart to grant us that one and only request. And much to my completely dumbfounded surprise, he did.

We were married right after graduation, and as Paddy and I prepared for our respective grad schools, we discovered the _real_ good news; I was pregnant. And not just pregnant. Oh, no. I had to get pregnant with twins, right out of the gate. Before he had a chance to say anything, I tore up my grad school paperwork and told Patrick that if he didn't go, I'd divorce him right then and there.

I knew what it was like to grow up without my parents around all the time, and I was not about to do that to my children. There would be time later on for me to go back to school, but my children would only be children once. It's sometimes a struggle, but we've done it together, and we've all been better off because of it.

Of course, my return to school would probably come a lot quicker if I could just figure out what it is that keeps getting me pregnant. But three kids and one on the way is a fantastic way to practice all those early childhood education classes I took as an undergrad. And regardless of how long it takes to get there, I know my husband and my children will be right there cheering me on, and it will all be worth it.

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**Steph & Thomas**

Thomas likes to say that he fell for me the moment we met, but I know the truth. I'm pretty sure he was looking for me before that.

Life can be a funny thing sometimes. I was born to two people who never thought they could have children, who lived full and meaningful lives before I ever came along. They loved and treasured me in such a way that I never knew a day where I worried about what they felt for me. But Thomas never knew that feeling until we met.

The only love he had ever known was the love of God. Thomas was rescued from a life of instability and abuse by the Brothers at his parochial school. He learned the love of Catholic charity and he grew up in that world from the age of eight. But the love of family eluded him for many more years.

When he and I started dating, I surprised him by saying that I couldn't get serious with anyone who my family didn't approve of. He had never known anyone who was so committed to their family that they would allow them to determine their relationships. What he didn't understand was that my family also trusted me and my decisions, and if I told them how I felt, they would do everything in their power to support me. No, he would learn that much later in life.

I've often worried that our relationship has been very one-sided, with Thomas merely coming along for the ride that is my life. And I made some silly mistakes in an effort to try and find more balance between us. We even went so far as to separate during our advanced residencies, because I didn't want him sacrificing to stay with me in Los Angeles. Eventually, I saw the folly of my decision and packed myself up to be with him. That was when I realized it was a pretty even partnership, because we were both willing to sacrifice whatever it took to be together.

It was also when Thomas says he discovered the true meaning of unconditional love. He said any woman willing to pick up and move to the desert with no job in hand, just to be with him, showed him what love was really all about, and it made him determined to spend the rest of his life being worthy of that love. And so far…he's doing a damn good job.

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**Jimmy & Emily**

Never in a million years could I have imagined that winning a free portrait of my kids would change the course of my life forever. But that's exactly what happened.

A raffle ticket from a school carnival and an eager photographer looking for business; that's how my life changed. It took me two weeks to schedule enough time between jobs and the kids' school and appointments before I was able to finally get the kids over to the photographer's studio. And when I got there, it was even worse.

Being a single parent has a lot of disadvantages. The biggest one being that time is my constant enemy. On this particular day Micah was having a ball throwing his shoes and socks out the car window on the way over, Devon was in a huge snit because she wanted to wear the pink bow in her hair instead of the white one that went with her dress, and one of my jobs kept calling to get me to cover another shift, but my babysitter wasn't bothering to return my phone calls. So, the very last thing I wanted to do was have their pictures taken by anyone, let alone some young hot shot photographer who was going try and get artsy so he could show off his vision and make my life a living hell with the children.

By the time we got to the studio all I wanted to do was go home. I was just about to turn the key in the ignition and peel right out of the parking lot. It was at that moment Jimmy came out of the door with this huge smile on his face and a helium balloon for each of the kids, sinking any chance I had at getting away.

We went into the studio and I was hooked. It wasn't artsy or stuffy or even looked like any photography studio I had ever seen before. The whole thing reminded me of someone's living room, someone with kids. And my kids loved it.

Devon fell in love with Jimmy the moment he told her how much he liked her hair bow, and Micah was gone the moment he showed him the aquarium filled with fire-bellied tree frogs. When he started taking the pictures the kids laughed and giggled and smiled brighter than I could ever remember seeing before.

When he was done, he gave the kids Lunchables and sat down with his camera behind the computer. He kept up the small talk with me as he continued to work on the computer, and then he pointed to the screen behind his head. He said that he was biased, but he thought it was the best picture, and up there on the wall was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. There behind his head were my two children, brimming over with joy and happiness and smiling so brightly that I almost started crying. And I must have looked like it, too, because he quickly stood up and handed me a box of tissues.

Jimmy was so sweet, and he made sure there wasn't another picture I liked better. Before we left, the kids each had a stuffed frog with his calling card tattooed to the belly, I had a proof for the photo in my hands, and he was sending me the portrait in the mail.

After two weeks, I still only had that proof taped to my refrigerator. I was starting to think the whole thing was a bust when on my one and only day off every week, wearing my grungiest pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt I was pretty sure I had been wearing since high school, he showed up on my doorstep.

Jimmy was wearing these god-awful khaki cargo shorts and a utility vest over a UCLA sweatshirt and he looked like he was about fifteen years old. He also smelled like he'd just stepped out of swamp. He was holding a brown paper wrapped box and apologizing profusely.

Apparently the photo lab sent the pictures to his studio by mistake and he had been out of town on a photography excursion with his uncle. He was talking a mile a minute and the whole time I kept trying to figure out why in the hell he didn't just call me when he got back. It wasn't like I was a paying customer or anything.

When I asked him why he was there, he stopped cold in his tracks and looked like all the blood had just drained out of his face. He stuttered for a while and I was sure he would spontaneously combust, but then Micah ran to Jimmy and wrapped himself around his leg, asking if he had any new frogs.

Twenty minutes later, Micah was still glued to Jimmy's side listening to him talk about the jungle and all the frogs and bugs he found on his trip, and Devon was on the other side doing the same thing. I fixed lunch and invited Jimmy to stay. The kids loved him, and his enthusiasm was incredible. He actually seemed to enjoy talking to them just as much as they enjoyed listening to him talk.

After lunch I put Micah down for his nap, while Devon was busy showing Jimmy her paper flower garden in the hallway. I was finally able to rescue Jimmy and myself from the whole ordeal when the little girl next door came over to get Devon, so they could play in her backyard.

I thanked him for being so nice to the kids and he completely floored me. Jimmy said he was glad he got some time to hang out with us, because it gave him the chance to see what he was getting himself into. And then he asked me out on a date.

This young guy, free to gallivant across the globe at a moment's notice, wanted to go out with me. Considering the way I looked the two times I had seen him, I was convinced he must have been insane. And I told him as much.

Jimmy just took my hand and he said that his family taught him to look for the deeper meaning in things and not to get hung up on the surface. He said that he looked into my eyes that day in the studio and he thought he could see forever. And he told me that he knew, without a doubt, I was the woman he was looking for.

I was speechless. Completely and totally without words.

He left me the box of pictures, which were way more than I was supposed to get for my prize, kissed my hand and said that I knew where to find him if I wanted to make his dreams come true.

Right after he walked out my front door, I started laughing. I figured it had to be some kind of joke. This kid could not seriously be trying to date me. He was just one of those smooth young guys out to get another notch on the bedpost. And then the flowers started.

Once a week, on my one day off, a new arrangement of flowers was delivered to my house. Every one had a short note on the back of one Jimmy's business cards. Most of them had the same theme; he was still waiting.

After two months of this I had taken all I was going to take. I got a girlfriend from work to take the kids for the afternoon and I drove right over to his studio to give him a piece of my mind.

I found Jimmy with the kid from the flower shop as he was scribbling another note on a business card to stick in with the flowers. I cleared my throat and he looked up from his writing. The smile on his face melted all of my anger into a single puddle.

He slipped the kid from the shop a twenty and sent him away without the flowers. Jimmy just stood there smiling at me until the door closed behind the kid. His smile actually brightened, and his eyes were practically beaming at me when he said, "I guess you finally found me."

We've been together ever since.

My first marriage was a joke, but I got two great kids out of it. My marriage to Jimmy has been the single greatest source of strength in my life. And when I first looked into the eyes of our daughter Bridget, I saw forever, too.

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**Max & Amanda**

Everybody always wants to know what it's like being married to a certified genius. But I never get a chance to answer, because Max always says, "It's the best thing I ever did, because she makes me smarter, too." He's just funny like that.

Now, neither one of us is below the curve on the intelligence scale, but everyone knows that Max is the genius. He's scary smart, which is even more impressive considering who he grew up with. His parents are crazy smart, and so is his Aunt Steph. But Max is smart on a scale that even scares the government. He's borderline evil genius smart. Lucky for us, his family is also super awesome, and they nurtured him just right, so there's no chance of that happening. Especially not with me on the job.

I'm far from stupid myself, but I never had the drive that Max does. Yeah, I went to college early like him, and my family encouraged me to keep going, but it just wasn't as important to me. You see, Max and I had a lot of things in common, including how much older our parents were when they had us. And I wanted something different for my life.

Max and I met when we were both scared teenagers going to UCLA. When we weren't cracking books, or working in a lab, we were on the beach with our families, surfing and having a good time. Max was staying with his Uncle Greg's family while he was in L.A. and my folks lived just down the block. It was perfect.

It was perfect, right up until Max announced our engagement at our graduation party. I thought for sure my Dad was going to blow a gasket, and Max's Dad got really quiet. If it wasn't for his twin cousins and his big sister, I think the whole thing could have gotten ugly. After all, we were only eighteen and Max was off to MIT in the fall.

Lilli was the one who set everyone straight. She told their Dad that if Max was any other eighteen year old hot shot she would have been the first person to call shenanigans on the whole thing. But Max was Max, and he and I had been together for almost four years. Then the twins told the whole party they should just be glad we wanted to get married instead of going off to Massachusetts and shacking up the way most eighteen year olds did. After my mother cleaned off the punch she'd just spit all over my father, she agreed with them.

I applied to the Harvard Business School for an MBA, and we got married on the beach in Marina Del Rey before we moved to the other side of the country for grad school. And we have a great life in Boston now. While Max was blowing the doors off of every theoretical physics lab in the world, I was wiping baby spit up off of my graduation robes. As I make sure Tommy isn't going to set the house on fire trying to be like his Daddy, Max is leading his field in research. And when I was giving birth to our adorable little princess, I was also in the middle of brokering a deal for the application of one of Max's discoveries with the Jet Propulsion Lab in California.

Nobody ever had to worry about us, because we weren't just any eighteen year old kids. We're happy and we're together, and we have the rest of our lives to help our kids find the exact same thing.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get Max to remember birthdays, my world would be perfect.

_**GSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRG SRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGS RGSRGSRGSRGSRGSRGSR**_

**Lindsey & Brian**

Talk about your fate, or your destiny, and that's what you've got with me and Linds. How else could you explain a kid from Nova Scotia coming to the States for university and ending up interning at one of the biggest, most incredible hotel and casino companies in the world, only to fall in love with this weird girl interning in the legal department because her grandfather runs the place? Has to be fate, or something a lot like it.

Or… Sam Braun's a much smarter man than anyone ever gave him credit for, and that's saying a lot.

I wasn't hired by the old man, so I have to assume it was fate that brought me crashing into this little slip of a girl with long blonde hair and an attitude ten times as long.

Me and Lindsey, we started out as enemies. She hated me more than any guy working at the Rampart that summer. And the next summer.

It was the summer after that when she decided I might not be so bad. I was working for the old man by that time. I was actually over at the Pike and an assistant manager. When I graduated from university, Sam said I had earned my stripes and he wanted to see what I could do. He gave me one year to improve the convention business at the Pike, and if I did he'd give me something bigger at the end. If I didn't, he said I'd have trouble getting a job as a pit boss in this town when he was done. I wasn't about to find out if the old man was kidding, so I got down to work.

At the end of ten months, I was turning conventions away, because the schedule was so full at the Pike. Sam called over to the Pike and told them to send that funny talking kid to the Tangiers, where I was told to fix the entertainment bookings in under a year. It took me six months, but I had featured performers from all walks of life set up, and deals in the works for seven headliners over the next eight months.

I never saw much of Sam, but he had his second put me on the casino floor at the Rampart next. Ben Riley told me I had three months to increase traffic on the floor and to bring in no fewer than two whales a week, or I was out. After two months, I'd gotten the floor to practically buzz with traffic, but I just couldn't figure out how to get the whales into the casino.

Lindsey and I had been dating for just over a year at that time and I told her I was worried I'd never live up to her grandfather's demands. We had never talked business before then. She only worked as an intern for her grandfather out of respect for the man, but she wanted no part of the casino world. She was about to finish law school and she was looking at taking a job with the district attorney's office.

When I shared with her my concerns she cursed at me. Well, not at me, but she still cursed. She grabbed my hand and pulled me straight across town and into her grandfather's office at the Rampart, where she proceeded to unload on the old man for being such a bastard to me. And Sam just laughed. The old man smiled for the first time I had ever seen, and he laughed.

Sam walked across the room and put his hands on her shoulders when he told her exactly what he had been doing. He said to her, "I had to make sure the lousy Canuck was worth the time it was gonna take me to train him to take my spot."

I was floored. I had no idea what I was supposed to say to something like that. Then he touched the side of her face and confessed, "I figured if he was good enough for my granddaughter, then I should make damn sure he's ready to handle the family business."

So, I never actually proposed to Lindsey. Her grandfather did it for me. Two weeks later, he told me to go out to Atlantic City to deal with a personnel problem, and then suggested that I fill up the corporate jet with the wedding party. We got married on the boardwalk with our parents and grandparents there.

All the important decisions in my life have been made by my family. My father picked my name. My mother chose my education. A mouthy blonde girl guaranteed my career. Sam Braun gave me a wife. And now, my son picks out my cars, while my daughter picks out my clothes. The only thing I get to do on my own is run a national entertainment, gaming and lodging corporation, but everything else is out of my hands.


End file.
